More is Less

Rating: 4/10 (25 December 2006)

Oh dear, Stephen Sommers. Having hit the big time with action adventure "The Mummy", Mr Sommers is a living example of the law of diminishing returns. "The Mummy Returns" is a distinctly so-so sequel and "Van Helsing" barely scrapes over the low standard set by Sommers' wet 1998 disaster movie, "Deep Rising".
So what's so bad about "Van Helsing"? After all, Sommers managed to plunder the movie legend of "The Mummy" pretty successfully, so he knows how to breathe new life into a stale old genre. He's a pretty good screenplay writer and a good director, and the production design of "Van Helsing" screams "Quality".
Well, er, that may be part of the problem. It looks like a big chunk of the budget went on props, sets and locations, judging by the lack of big name stars in the cast list. Hugh Jackman does well as the eponymous hero but he doesn't get much support from the rest of the cast. Poor old Richard Roxburgh tries so hard to be Dracula but is too subtle to be noticed in anything but the fight scenes. Samuel West is cruelly wasted in the far-too-brief role of Victor Frankenstein. David Wenham twinkles occasionally as Van Helsing's friar sidekick but his mannered performance is drowned out by the movie's excesses. Kate Beckinsale proves that she can act pretty well, but is sidelined by her character's improbable costume and ludicrous stunts. Much like Rachel Weisz in "The Mummy Returns" and Carrie Ann Moss in "The Matrix", Beckinsale's role in "Van Helsing" is merely Eye Candy with Weapons and Martial Arts Moves.
Kate Beckinsale's costume demands a special mention. Somewhere between Trinity and Mad Max, she is trussed up in buckled thigh boots and bodice for the whole picture. Despite looking like she's ready for a night at the Torture Garden, she manages to run, jump, leap, fall and fight like a commando. This demands a suspension of disbelief akin to bungee jumping without a bungee.
Yup, that's the main problem with this movie. It demands too much from the viewer. The plot is something to do with Dracula using werewolves and evil German dwarfs as henchmen in a plot to use Frankenstein's re-animation process to bring a vampiric horde to life. Having despatched Mr Hyde in Paris, Van Helsing is sent to Transylvania to help Anna Valerious, a gypsy princess whose family have been battling Dracula for 400 years. Got all that? There's more besides. The plot is thrown at you by the bucket-load, then you're swept into another action set-piece before you get a chance to work out what the hell is going on.
The action sequences start off as adequate but quickly plunge into the realms of disbelief. It's almost as if you can see the CGI budget ebbing and flowing during the course of the picture. Mr Hyde is pretty well rendered, but the flying vampire brides look patently fake. The demonic vampire offspring get too much screen time and their interaction with the human cast members harks back to the Time Before Harryhausen. The coach-and-six jumping over the ravine looks OK but the idea of a horse-drawn vehicle leaping 50-odd feet is preposterous.
Mr Sommers needs to take a step back from this movie and work out where it all went wrong. Even more so than with "The Mummy Returns", he over-reached himself in terms of plot and special effects and allowed his cast to be swamped in the resulting deluge. As he's due to have a stab at re-inventing "Flash Gordon" in the near future, I hope that he gets his "The Mummy" mojo back sooner rather than later.