A pleasant surprise if your expectations weren't high

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2004)

I was looking forward to watch Van Helsing, probably because there was not much going on around or probably just to keep up to date. I had little expectations about it, the synopsis didn't attract me much, but I wanted something new, so I watched it.
I was pleasantly surprised that the opening scene wasn't introducing the main character, and that the author managed to keep the intrigue during the next couple of scenes (c'mon, it isn't something written by the Cohen brothers or Kaufmann, so let's treat it in its weight category!). Of course, I had to filter a fair amount of BS, but that's normal for a heroic flick like that, so bring it on.
The CGI was pretty good, sometimes very good, sometimes annoying - up to the standards in any case, though no matrixish bullet time or whatever. But what for? There's already lots of movies with splashing water circled all around by the virtual camera, just pick a title from the shelf.
The plot, as I've already said, isn't worth mentioning. The salad the Mummy's daddy Stephen Sommers has done out of seemingly all the monster fiction and comic books found on his shelf looks like an unsuccessful marriage of Mary Shelley's mattress dwelling bedbug and Ian Flemming's bastard nephew's chihuahua's flee. And I could probably live much better without the hero/sidekick vs villain/sidekick cliché, but then it would take the author to actually think a lot, so hey, gimme the action, babe and nevermind the self-proclaimed intellectuals! If you have a weak stomach - try not to watch this movie after meal. Some parts are really gross stomach-wise, lots of viscous blob being splattered and lots of squishy looking things jumping around. Yuck.
All in all, I enjoyed the movie, it made my evening, so if you don't get tired easily of meaningless plots, can filter BS at some fair ratio and like to watch an action-packed movie with a sometimes creative camera work - go for it. I'd give it a 6 out of 10, it's a solid entertainment flick.