Van Helsing (2004)
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Van Helsing Movie Review
Van Helsing is a 2004 gothic horror action film directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale and Richard Roxburgh. It is such a fun, silly movie.
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“I think if you’re going to kill somebody, kill them!
Don’t stand around talking about it!“
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Van Helsing, a legendary monster hunter, is sent to Transylvania in order to prevent Count Dracula, a terrorizing being, from realizing his evil motives. This is one of my childhood favorites. I watched this flick so many times as a kid during the mid 2000s on DVD and on television that I know certain scenes by heart. Thus, I like it even today due to nostalgic reasons.
The movie received overly harsh reviews with an abysmal rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I find that rating unjustifiable given that there are so many much worse movies that got higher ratings. This type of movie is supposed to be fun first and foremost and it is wildly entertaining, so it got that going for it. Yes, it’s ridiculous, but the entertainment factor is very high here.
It definitely bastardizes the classic Universal monsters to a degree, but the film is still interesting in its mixture of gothic horror and pure action elements. I would say that it’s predominantly an action movie. It is overwhelming in its hectic pacing and too many battles, but at least most are very well executed and just a lot of fun to watch.
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Hugh Jackman as the titular protagonist is at his usual bravado great. His action scenes are excellent. Kate Beckinsale definitely isn’t the greatest actress, but she looks cool while fighting and she is impossibly good-looking in this film that is fueled by sex appeal for both genders.
I really liked Richard Roxburgh as Dracula. He was over-the-top, but in an amusing way. He was a solid villain, but even more could have been done with him to make him more of a menacing presence. Frankenstein’s monster got a pretty solid arc for himself while the the three brides of Dracula were also over-the-top, but delightfully so. Their fight scenes were among my favorites here.
Van Helsing is certainly overloaded with special effects, but those effects are actually outstanding as the movie aged surprisingly well. It has that overly dark aesthetic typical for mid 2000s VFX-driven blockbusters, but other than that nuisance, the creature designs are excellent and everybody looks believable. The production design is also surprisingly strong with Transylvania looking cool and menacing.
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The first half of Van Helsing is significantly better than the second much inferior one. The black-and-white first act is gorgeous and wonderfully traditional while the first scenes in Transylvania are all fantastic. The second half became overly frenetic in pacing, too humorous in approach and it has too much action that became annoying by this point, but the score is quite solid and the movie is simply enjoyable in its cast of many different monsters that it’s difficult not to classify it as guilty pleasure.
