If Only It Were Halloween...
If Halloween were in the summertime, this would have been the perfect. Van Helsing has got all the high-flying explosive action of a summer blockbuster, and it has enough monsters and weirdo's that would put any horror movie to shame. When I first saw the trailers for this movie, I was not impressed at all. It looked like an excuse to get all the classic monsters into the same movie. Well, maybe it was just an excuse, but the movie's execution of this is commendable. All of these monsters are from the same universe, so why not the same town?
Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is a hitman of sorts for the Vatican; he sent all over Europe taking out evil baddies with sophisticated weaponry. Van Helsing has a reputation as a murderer throughout most of the civilized world, since many of these evil creatures revert back to their original states upon death. After a romp with Mr. Hyde through Paris, Van Helsing is sent to the infamous town of Transylvania, now home to Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's Monster. He must take out Dracula before he can unleash an army of evil upon the world. Van Helsing is aided by the stunning Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), whose brother has been transformed into a werewolf.
The rest of the movie is action sequences with astounding visual effects and dramatic camera angles. The creature effects are very cool, as the environments. Can I ask why it's necessary to construct a road right on the edge of a cliff when there is a perfectly good forest that carriages won't fall off of? Because it's classic and cliched, that's why. Why mess with something tried and true? The fight scenes are very cool and very fast. There may not be much of a story, but it remains typical to the classic horror film.
Like I said, this movie was just an excuse to get all the monsters together. I half expected the Creature from the Black Lagoon leap out of puddles or see the Mummy in some ancient tomb. There's nothing remotely innovative about this movie, and in a few years, it will be forgotten. But it was highly entertaining, though I have a feeling this summer has much more in store for us.