Van Helsing is excellent summer movie fun! ***1/2 out of 5

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2005)

I really like this film. It features non-stop eye candy, a likable hero, spooky settings, and tons of monsters, what's not to like?
Stephen Sommers is a director who basically goes all out and likes to pack on action sequence after action sequence. He isn't someone out to make a dramatic Oscar winning film, he's just out to make good, fun, likable, special effects laden popcorn films and I respect that.
The monsters here are well done, especially my favorite monster, the Wolfman.. er.. Wolfmen. They are quite scary looking actually and definitely how I feel werewolves should be portrayed.
Alan Silvestri really packs a punch with his flamboyant and highly original score. One of his absolute best.
There are action films and then there are action films that literally don't let you catch your breath. This is one of the later.
There are a couple of small cheesy scenes and lines of dialog, but I believe they can be easily dismissed as the script really isn't bad at all. In fact there are some pretty good memorable lines here and there.
What can I say? I enjoyed it unlike a lot of reviewers here... but then again, I think a lot of people really enjoyed it. It made a killing at the box office.
Here's hoping for Van Helsing's Return!