The OD of CG soured my taste for this movie

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2004)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for CGI but not when it completely dominates the movie. Van Helsing utilized it way too much, from the buildings, to the characters, to the stunts, the environment, etc. It looked as though 90% of the movie was done completely on a computer. If you're going to use CG use it when you really have to, if it costs way too much to do the real deal or the model costs too much or you can make the image look very realistic (I know, it can't be perfect, but damn close to it is possible these days). LXG had this problem as well and it seems like the makers of Van Helsing didn't learn from LXG's mistakes.
The story, acting, cinematography were pretty good. Not amazing, but pretty good. Directing seemed kind of rushed to me as though Stephen Sommers just wanted to get to the next CGI scene or action scene.
The Mummy was an awesome movie. Absolutely fantastic and used CG when they had to, but a lot of camera, makeup and other tricks were used to bring out the world of early-20th century Egypt. Van Helsing didn't, and that was its downfall.
Final Rating: 7/10