Good CGI and action, but little emphasis on story

Rating: Null/10 (7 May 2004)

If you want today's non-stop action and explosive adventure scenes, then this movie will provide little disappointment. However, if you are also looking for any drama backed by a well-thought storyline, then you may find this film coming up shy.
The plot is rather simple. A monster-hunter recruited by the Vatican, Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman), embarks on a mission to kill the evil Count Dracula. To spice things up a bit, he also has to face The Werewolf and Frankenstein. These classic confrontations are not much different from any other film other than the computer-generated images (CGI) that are included. Van Helsing has a selection of weapons that are a medieval version of the toys James Bond has. And also like Bond films, Kate Beckinsale provides the necessary alluring femme fatale role. Also of this you can gather from the thirty second trailer if you've seen it, but like all trailer's, they are designed to hype the film.
There is some irony in Jackman's Wolverine role from X-Men, but to keep from spoiling the movie I will spare you the details. I can however say that looking for some plausibility and trying to digest the details of the movies progression may prove challenging and in the end, pointless. I was given the impression too much was left to chance in the storyline on how things came to pass, and since I was being fed new information at such a rapid rate, I was left to believe it was a snow-job on the director's part. But not to frown on the movie too much, I can tell you that you are taken on a wild adventure/crusade against evil. There isn't any real gore or intense violence in the film. Most of the violence is the classic vampire impaling with CGI to enhance the subsequent death. I found the movie far from scary but more action-oriented.