Surprisingly good

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2005)

Van Helsing is basically the story of a monster hunter who lives in the world of Gothic 19th century creatures. The movie is not so much horror but steam-punk science fiction. He works for a worldwide peacekeeping service that employs anyone from Islamic to Buddhist and is surprisingly enough based in the Vatican. Van Helsing looks an awful lot like the WWE wrestler the Undertaker.
Van Helsing is called to Transylvania to kill Dracula. Even though its cold, dark, and a few people every month die as sacrifices to the vampires there are still quite a few people living there. And even though the town is in Europe people still use feet and inches. There he finds Anna who looks like a 16th century pirate in fancy clothes while everyone else wears rags. Anna's family has basically fought against Dracula for centuries and no one can kill him, now she is the only one left and Van Helsing has to save her.
The computer graphics and special effects are very good and the story is decent. All the monsters are nicely animated except for Frankenstein's creature who looks very fake in the costume. The movie looks very corny from the beginning with items like automatic crossbows and self spinning throwing stars. Its basically batman set 100 years before and with a lady buccaneer. While not nearly a classic, Van Helsing makes up for a well entertained 2 hours.