"Van Helsing"

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2004)

"Van Helsing" is a movie that boasts some incredible special effects, but suffers a lot from awfully strenuous pacing that mars what is an otherwise fun experience.
Out on home video just in time for the Halloween season, the famous (or should I say infamous?) vampire slayer Van Helsing (Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman) is the most wanted man in Europe, for accusations that he is a murderer rather than a hero. His quarry has expanded from vampires to any number of ghoulish nasties, including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Aided by the bumbling friar Carl (David Wenham) and with the help of the Transylvanian beauty Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), he proceeds to track down his arch-nemesis Dracula (Richard Roxburgh), who has recruited the Wolf Man and seeks to use Frankenstein - both in some notorious plot.
From the opening credits, which homages to the Universal monster classics of yore, "Van Helsing" sucks you in. Certainly more comic book than fright film, it's still impressive entertainment. It has a fairly slow build-up, but gets interesting once the special effects kick in.
Unfortunately, while the special effects are the best part of "Van Helsing," they quickly become "Van Helsing," abandoning any plot elements and reducing the characters to special effects as well.
Aside from that minor quibble, "Van Helsing" is still a fun and fast ride from Stephen Sommers, the director of the first two "Mummy" films and the 1998 horror movie "Deep Rising."
7/10