Great action, nothing close to a disaster . . .

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2004)

I had no trouble at all watching this on DVD. The plot unfolded nicely, and answered all the questions I raised as the story progressed. I was a little disappointed by the ant-climax after the final battle, but it works because who would expect a career murderer (Van Helsing - played by Hugh Jackman) to actually walk away with "the girl."
The use of CG in this film is better than anything I've seen, and the information in the DVD extras about how it was done is great. This period fantasy piece does push the envelope of CG technology, raising the monsters to a level of realism almost believable, and the performers seemed to have had fun making the film.
I found this to be very entertaining, and so did my wife. We will be adding it to our permanent collection soon.