OTT!!!

Rating: 5/10 (1 November 2004)

Stephan Sommers, responsible for the simplistic, high action, low plot, and mildly diverting Mummy series, continues his love of the B-movie and monster movie with this CGI laden action fest. Van Helsing is about the legendary mythical Vampire Hunter and Sommer's not only pits him against Vampire, but Werewolves, Harpies, Frankenstein's monster and Dr Jekyll and his alter ego, Mr Hyde. Already you can tell that this film is all about the action.
This is a mildly diverting and occasionally spectacular movie but at the end of the day it's forgettable and hollow, despite the superb Jackman. Hugh Jackman plays the titular hero and as he was in X Men and Swordfish, he makes an engaging and charismatic action hero, thanks to that extra bit of acting ability that traditional action stars don't usually have. Co-Starring is the sex-tastic Kake Beckinsdale who is ravishingly good as Van Helsings not so damsel in distress, love interest.
The problem with this film is that despite being huge in scale, it just doesn't engage the audience. It's almost too big for it's boots and lacks the wit and rollicking enjoyment value of The Mummy. There are too many elements, It's like adding more spices than you need to a perfectly good curry and ruining the flavour. Whereas as The Mummy was a nicely spiced Chicken Jalfrezi, this is a Prawn, Chicken, Lamb and Beef, Tikka-Massalla-Bhoona-Dhansak (I know my curries!). Something full of elements that should work, but in the end don't. Sommers loses grip and in the end seems to be at the computer screen whacking off in delight at all the techno wizardry before him and as such we get over the top action sequences, CGI crane shots and just too much sugar coating for something that was far to sweetened to begin with. It's teeth rotting stuff this and you'll leave with a stomach ache for sure. That's enough of the food analogies, I'm getting hungry but basically this really is an excessive and ultimately wasteful exercise in making a movie purely for the box office receipts.
This has its moments but is a waste of a talented cast, with Jackman in particular not given enough to do. **