An interesting foray into Universal's past

Rating: 7/10 (10 May 2004)

It's been obvious over the past few years that Hollywood is lacking imagination. There have been more sequels, prequels, remakes and recycling of characters and stories in the past 5 years than I care to admit to watching. Though there are always good and bad, this one falls in the grey area, leaning towards the good.
Van Helsing has been played by many a character but I like this one the best. The movie is chalk full of great animation, fantastic action sequences and some of the best costumes I've seen in a little while. Though the story is a familiar one, this "version" does a good job of introducing a new generation to an old classic.
Though I would have liked to see less "monsters" in this movie (what will they work with next? Not too many left from Universal's old vault)it still managed to keep me interested through. I do think that this is a little on the long side and at one point I wondered when they were going to get on with the story. The story itself is nothing new though some of the "new" details were interesting. An entertaining flick, this may be too much for those of us who watched some of these originals but it is a great intro for a new generation of movie watchers. Surprisingly, I found this very enjoyable and well worth my hard earned money.
7/10