Review: 'Van Helsing' Monstrous Thrill Ride

'Van Helsing' (PG-13)
The stakes are high for writer-director Stephen Sommers' new adventure-thriller "Van Helsing" and for all intents and purposes, he gives you everything you'd ever want out of a summer blockbuster movie release: the action is fast and intense, the sets are amazingly detailed, the adventure is sweeping and the special effects are a knock-out.

But if you're looking for in-depth character study in "Van Helsing," you'll have a hard time finding it. This movie is pure popcorn -- and it's drenched in butter with a little camp and melodrama sprinkled on top for good measure. Sure, it's not a perfect movie, but it still manages to be wildly entertaining.

"Van Helsing" screams out of the gate with a spectacular homage to the Universal Studios classics of old, with a black and white scene that finds Dr. Frankenstein (Samuel West) bringing his monster (Shuler Hensley) to life in his castle.

It's at that point where the classic genre and Sommers' re-imagined version of the genre intersects, when we discover that Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) wants the newly-created monster for his own evil plans. But all is lost when the villagers drive the monster and his creator into a windmill which they quickly set afire.

Skipping ahead a year, we meet Abraham Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman), a rugged monster hunter who's sole purpose is to vanquish evil at the directive of a secret society made up of all religions.

The trouble is Van Helsing is a haunted soul because he has no recollection of his past. But he may have a chance of discovering with his latest assignment: to travel to Transylvania to hunt down Dracula and help aristocrat Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale) and her brother, Velkan (Will Kemp), rid their family of centuries-old curse in the process.

But their plans become complicated when a vicious werewolf, as well as Dracula's three bloodthirsty brides (Josie Maran, Silvia Colloca and Elena Anaya), who can turn into flying beasts at the blink of an eye all enter the fray. That's because Dracula and his brides are looking for Frankenstein's monster, who holds the key to helping them infest the world with more of their own.

While Sommers' "Mummy" movies concentrated on one of Universal Studio's classic monster movie characters, the filmmaker takes on a tall order by reviving three others and a pivotal character with Van Helsing, to boot (and, another non-Universal monster makes a small appearance) with this film. He's poured a lot of details into expanses of Transylvania, but it also comes at some expense.

As a movie that's so heavy on action and effects, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that "Van Helsing" is light in meaningful dialogue, considering Jackman's monster hunter spends a great deal of time battling one creature or another. That's not to say Jackman doesn't have presence: his natural charisma keeps the character interesting. There's just much less complexity than his Wolverine character from the "X-Men" movies, which somewhat mirrors Van Helsing.

In many ways, the lead characters are very similar to what we saw in "The Mummy" movies in Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah: Jackman's slips comfortable into the dashing hero mode while a gorgeous Beckinsale ably handles her role and has presence as Van Helsing's tough-female counterpart.

Providing the comic relief and nearly stealing the show at that, is David Wenham, who plays a friar, Carl, who accompanies Van Helsing on his mission. Kevin J. O'Connor, who played Fraser's chief agitator Beni in "The Mummy," delivers an equally delectable performance here as the demented lab assistant Igor.

As for the monsters, Sommers clearly put a lot of thought into making each character a pivotal part of the story rather that having them merely exist as set pieces.

At the forefront of the story, naturally, is Dracula, masterfully played by Roxburgh. The actor commands your presence on the screen by easily delivers the most complex performance in the film. He can be delightfully funny and flamboyant without being over-the-top campy one minute, yet become filled with rage, loneliness and suffering the next.

Hensley also infuses some complexity into Frankenstein's monster, which closest mirrors the creatures portrayed in the original Universal classics in look and character. He's misunderstood, pained and compassionate, yet could tear you limb-from-limb if he wanted to.

Kemp is given the least to work with as the Wolf Man. Sure, he tries to parlay the tragedy in the human side of his character, but for "Van Helsing's" purposes, his furry and fanged alter-ego is computer-generated, so he really has no way of incorporating any of his emotion into the creature.

While "Van Helsing" at its heart is an action-adventure-thriller, there are plenty of horror-inspired moments to go around. Providing the biggest scares are the beast incarnations of Dracula's brides, who give off a vibe similar to the creepiness of the Hammer Studios horror film genre. There's no question some scenes may be too intense for younger kids, especially with the brides and all other things winged.

The biggest problem with "Van Helsing" is its sound. From a technical standpoint, it's just too loud (of course, things may vary depending on your theater's sound system); and from a creative standpoint, Alan Silvestri's score draws too much attention to itself at times. I'm sure I would have enjoyed the movie even more in less voluminous setting.

Needless the say, the loudness also contributes to the tedium of the crash-boom-bang factor; most notably in a lab-crushing confrontation near the end that will surely put your eardrums through a workout.

While the computer-generated effects are mind-blowing, it's too bad Sommers didn't ease in more use of the traditional shadow technique in the movie, because he proved early on in the film and it bits throughout that it can indeed be effective.

After all, shadows and light were among the few tricks filmmakers had in the early 1930s when these classic characters started coming to life -- and its effectiveness testifies as to why Sommers is making movies about the very same monsters today.