A good ride. Enjoy it.

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2004)

Just got back from seeing it. What a ride!!!
Like "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" before it, leave your critical thinking at the door. You aren't going to see this movie expecting it to have some deep insight into the human condition are you?
Enjoy the ride. This is an excellent blending of rollercoaster live action with awesome special effects, and it's a rollicking good story.
Hugh Jackman is good enough to please the ladies, and that hat is going to become as memorable as Indiana Jones' Fedora (the movie calls for a sequel of some sort). Kate Beckinsale is simply adorable and looks great in bitch boots and a leather corset. (She needs to be careful she doesn't get typecast, because her role kind of reminds me of her role in "Underworld" - she's NOT a vampire BTW)
Speaking of Kate, like Rachel Weisz in both Mummy films, Stephen Sommers lets her be an action heroine, and not keep fainting when the monsters come, as films in the past used to.
Kate is probably the best action heroine since Sigourney Weaver in the Alien films.
The only bit that was a minor let down is that they hint on the origin of Van Helsing, but it's not completely explained. Maybe they are planning a sequel.
I always judge a film on wether I would buy the DVD. I'll go out the day it's released, and buy myself a copy.