Cartoon Movie

Rating: Null/10 (10 May 2004)

This isn't a good movie, but it aint particularly bad.
The actual premise had potential but the way in which is was realized was so OTT that even the escapist movie goers have trouble believing what they are watching.
It took a while for movie makers to get to grips with CGI but now it seems they are using it to gloss over poor storylines and miscast actors/actresses.
Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsdale are good actors but Hugh seems to say about 10 words in the movie (and one of them was an embarrassing howl at the end) whilst Kate does well at keeping a straight face while she talks in her 'east European' accent.
We now seem to live in a cartoon movie era. I don't mean that allot of the films are based on cartoon characters (i.e. Spiderman, batman) but the actual way the films are made are cartoonish. Dialogue is whittled down to a few choice expletives and catch phrases and the physical action (jumping 50ft doors in a single leap) has reached totally ridiculous levels (even Spiderman thinks twice before swinging from a skyscraper).
It may sound daft but there are boundaries to which the average movie goer can reach before coming out of the virtual reality of a film.
The trouble with this film is that you snap out of the Helsing reality in the first 10 minutes and end up just smiling wryly through the rest of the film.