Where's the story?

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2004)

When every May comes, we all know that the Summer Blockbuster season starts. This year it begins with this latest action extravaganza. Unfortunately, this film embodies what the summer blockbuster has become. A soulless exercise in high budget frenziness. The movie looks great, the effects are mostly top of the line, but it lacks what I believe is essential to a good adventure movie, characters and a story that the audience cares about. This movie has some impressive action sequenses, but they are not as exhilerating as they should be. The pacing is breakneck, but the movie never stops to even give us 5 minutes to develop any semblance story or character. Hugh Jackman plays Van Helsing, a monster killer, as we all know the arch nemesis of Dracula, in this movie we get wherwolves and Frankenstein's monster for good measure. The story is as cheesy as you get, Dracula wants to use Frankenstein to bring thousands of his offspring to life. Even a cheesy story can be involving;not this time. The action is well done, no expense has been spared to created it, but the movie has no heart.
Crade: C