Leave the Swinging to Spidey (spoiler)

Rating: 4/10 (25 May 2004)

This film had the old action/adventure matinee feeling to it. I would have liked it more if it were more about fantasy/horror and less of a Hollywood-like formula. Even if I were a kid.
In my mind the themes I found interesting had to do with evil forces within beauty, revealed in very frightening and sometimes uncontrollable ways. Some characters show a bit of the conflict within - vampiress controlling a cat-like nature to pounce, with jaws distorting to an elongated state. (This chilling effect reinforces how cats really are more frightening at closer inspection of their long fangs!) Also, the werewolf was not able to contain his animalistic changing nature - even among friends! Frankinstein's monster also touched on the polar opposite - the hideous creature is beautiful inside. Although done before, those timeless ideas offered the best scenes of the movie, frightening and sad. I thought that the credits at the end were creative and artistic.
The worst parts include clothing for Van which seemed like it was taken from the Indiana Jones set (as well as the character), a gadget prop scene ala James Bond "What can this do, Q.?", and for Anna that typical vampire-fu, back-flipping Buffy the Slayer action!
I would have liked it more if the movie had battled in the mind, not so much visually, and left the viewers figuring out how things connected for themselves. Sadly, for me there were just too many ropes setup in the right place at the right time. Leave the swinging to Spidey.