Intentionally campy and ridiculous

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2008)

If someone would ask me to define a comic book movie, I'd show them Van Helsing, as that really is how the film plays out: a comic book from from pre-WW2 era.
Van Helsing is a silly, emphasis on the word silly here, yarn about vampire hunter named, well, Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman), who surprisingly enough has lost his memory. He's aided by the Vatican and its secret stash of monks, who do nothing else than make weapons for killing the forces of dark. Van Helsing is assigned to go after Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) and a young monk Carl (David Wenham) is ordered to go with him as a tech support. In Transylvania he gets help from Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), of whom family the Dracula has wowed to kill off, and surprisingly enough the creature (Shuler Hensley) that Frankenstein made.
This all leads to sights and action that makes no sense in any level with the exception of entertainment value. And that really is how the film should be seen: nonsensical piece of pulp entertainment. If you start to expect some real values form it, like sense or plot or good dialog, you are certainly watching a wrong film. But it you don't mind a highly illogical film, that causes you to chuckle for its own silliness, well, you just might enjoy this ride.
This film, I thought, did far better in its genre than some other films, like Sky Captain. Van Helsing is certainly worth a one look.