Van Helsing

Bah, please delete the duplicate thread. I forgot to post a topic.

Decided to go and see it tonite.

Entertaining but not without flaw/s. For the most part I really enjoyed the first two thirds of the movie. There is practically no story at all, just non stop action. And I do mean non stop. I don't have any problems with that as I found the movie fun to watch and enjoyed it's dark atmosphere and swashbuckler spirit. But I know it will really turn away some viewers for how lacking the story truly is.

It's the final chapter that really fell falt imo. It turned into a mess of predictable or extremely far fetched action sequences. You know, those kind of battles that create those insanely ironic and coincidental moments in which one battle will magically intertwine with another so that the hero losing the battle will suddenly be saved by the sheer luck of another hero stumbling into the scene and helping out whether it was deliberate or not.

Van Helsing is a great character. It's just shame that the ending abandons the cool calm intellectual hunter that he is with some horrible plot device which I won't spoil. I would of made Van Helsing more comical and sly witted. I'm actually surprised that the director (same as the mummy movies) didn't do so. Brendan's character was full of wit much like Indiana Jones but you won't find much of that here with Hugh. Speaking of the Mummy, you should instantly recognize that the person playing Igor is the same as Beni.

The comedy really fell short. The punchlines and jokes received little reaction in my theatre. I doubt many were even chuckling. The character Carl played by David Wenham imo really wasted his talents. (AKA Faramir of LOTR). The thick headed sidekick I could of gone without. He did have some moments but I thought a lot of the humor was pretty dry.

Thanks for your insight, Depression. The previews, of course, make it look spectacular, but I have noticed it's really taking a beating when it comes to critical acclaim. Good or bad, I'm sure I'm still going to go see it because I'm such a sucker when it comes to eye candy. ;)

Eye candy and ear candy 8) . This is a LOUD movie.

Eye Candy a.k.a. Kate Beckinsale?

8)

i thought that the movie was okay as summer action fare, but including just about all the big-name monsters of literature and cinema means that whatever sequel they have has the potential to be uber-lame.

^^ This is true, but you are forgetting the fact that Kate will sign on for a sequel... only to be SELENE IN AN UNDERWORLD CROSSOVER!!! :x

Did you like how Mr. Hyde was also the Hunchback of Notre Dame? Only Roger Ebert seemed to have made the connection, lol.

I thought the ending was perfectly appropriate, it reinforces Van Helsing's nature of a loner. The thing VH did that I appreciated was really set up the man as a hunter before having the big story kick off... the scenes with Mr. Hyde were exactly what Hellboy was missing a month ago, it helps to establish the character before he went up against a major challenge. Excellently done. I really enjoyed this movie.

Yeah, but it's a Hollywood movie, and I'm sure that a lot of people were expecting the two characters to be holding each other while looking at a sunrise/sunset. :)

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From a certain perspective I suppose.... Kate had a lead role in the movie but was more so just a plot vehicle. She wouldn't be necessary for a sequel (if she had lived). I don't think it hints at the fact that she dies, but because we've seen the movie it's that much more easy to look at it that way?










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um, you almost spoiled the movie. :p

All i know is the final scene made me laugh and I looked behind me and somebody was crying. From my experience, that usually means the movie is bad, last time that happened I was at "Beyond Borders"

I saw Vanhelsing a couple of days after the release. It's fun for what it is. It's a great summer movie as far as being action packed. I'd say the CG is good, but not great. Other than CG eye candy, there's Kate Beckinsale, and a couple of very hot Vampires! However, when you find yourself missing dialogue while wondering who's hotter, Beckinsale or the redhead vampire... it might say something for the plot, story, and character building. I had high hopes for Vanhelsing when I saw the trailer the first time. I felt let down after seeing it, but it's not entirely without merit.

- Josh :)

The Red headed Vampire below the neck, Beckensale above... I mean... um... Good story.:p

I've heard lots of good and bad stuff about this movie, so I went out to see it and I was very impressed. It was a great fun, silly action-adventure horror flick. I didn't expect it to be the greatest movie of all time, and I liked it because I took it on its own terms. You can't compare "Van Helsing" to great films like "The Godfather" but then again those two are never meant to be compared. "Van Helsing" achieved with flying colors exactly what it meant to by being a horror homage with lots of great action scenes and colorful characters. The plot to bring Frankenstein, theWolfman, and Dracula together worked for me, and in fact it was actually kind of clever. I wish they would have done a slightly better job on Frankenstein, but you can't beat Boris Karloff. Dracula could have been more evil, but if they made Dracula as evil as I wanted him to be the film would have been banned. The music of the film was awesome, the special effects were very well done, the plot really wasn't bad, and Hugh Jackman was perfectly cast. I even jumped a few times in theater, there were a few pretty good scares. The lighthearted jokes were great in my opinion, and the whole audience including myself was laughing at the jokes or going "wow, that was cool" a lot. If you like films like the Mummy, the Mummy Returns, (SCORPION KING is terrible, however) or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I loved all of those), than "Van Helsing" will blow you away. As far as action flix go, you could do a HELL of a lot worse! (Pardon the bad pun).
My rating: 7 out of 10

(Now when does Fright Night Part III and The Lost Boys 2 come out? :))
I can't wait to get the Dracula/Frankenstein/Wolfman Legacy Collections!

I dunno...I think that one CAN compare movies from different genres to each other. I mean, a great movie is a great movie next to anything, and a bad one is a bad one next to anything. :)

Justin... I think I agree... uhhh I mean about the story... uhh yeah... the story... right.

Van Helsing wasn't horrible, I just had high hopes for story, and character building. I do however feel sorry for actor David Wenham (Carl in Van Helsing). He went from playing in an EPIC movie as the noble and benevolent "Faramir" in LOTR, to a dorky, wimpy, and fairly uninteresting character of "Carl" in Van Helsing. Speaking of which, this was one of the let downs for me. I think it was REALLY lame to put a midevil version of the James Bond and "Q" relationship between Van Helsing and Carl in Van Helsing. Maybe I'm trying to put too serious a note on Van Helsing, but that's how I feel it was advertised. As I mentioned above, it was good for what it was, but I doubt I'll add it to my library. James Cameron once said (and I'm paraphrasing) (There's a certain "flow" that you have to follow in visual story telling in order to both keep people interested, but also send them on a rollercoaster ride). I think this is where Van Helsing failed. Oh well. It is what it is.

- Josh :D

I was just reading about the character Van Helsing in this movie and found out that Gabriel Van Helsing is actually Abraham's younger brother.