And I wanted to like this movie so bad...

Rating: 5/10 (14 May 2004)

Alright, well to be completely fair, I walked into this movie pumped. I had been looking forward to it since I first read the rumors. Hugh Jackman is great and Beckinsale isn't too bad either, but they just couldn't pull this movie out of the rutt. The movie got into this early pattern of dropping people from the top of things and just didn't seem to be able to stop. I can't remember the last time falling was a chief plot device in a movie! Anyway, we are grounded in a certain love for the classic horror creatures (Drac, Frank, Wolfie) and to cheer against them we need to be given a certain motivation, i.e. connection to the hero who battles them. Van Helsing just doesn't offer that. I didn't care what happened to either of the heroes in the movie, no matter how many times they fell off of things. Thrills were not delivered, special effects were only semi-impressive while not realistic, and they played on the same old monster mashing traditions. Beckinsale seems strangely doomed to make Underworld over and over as it seems this was another werewolf versus vampire movie. Weak plot, weak characters, weak movie, little or no originality. Luckily, the constant action is just enough to keep you from realizing what the movie is till it's over. In the end, it really feels like an episode of a Van Helsing cartoon than anything else. 5/10