Since the dawn of film, there have been many many attempts to bring the story of Dracula to life on the silver screen from Nosferatu, to the more well known films such as Universal's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi and Bram Stoker's Dracula (Many of which, including this reviewer, think is the most accurate adaptation done in film thus far). Once again Hollywood has decided to try its hand at redoing the ol' Dracula mythos with Van Helsing, only this time hot off the heels of movies like Underworld, this version of the tale takes a more gothic action popcorn flick approach to the timeless story.
In the beginning we are introduced to yet another one of Universal's iconic film horror monsters, Frankenstein's monster, at his birth, which, it seems, ol' Drac was behind. Apparently the count helped create the monster as a way to revive his undead children but when Frankenstein's monster refuses to help the crazy old bat, Drac attempts to dispose of him. We then fast forward a whole year, where we are introduced to the title hero of our film, Van Helsing himself played by Hugh Jackman in an attempt to be known for something other than the live action Wolverine. In this opening sequence we see Van Helsing has been sent to hunt down yet another famous literary character, Mr. Hyde, under the orders of a mysterious organization called the Knights of the Holy Order, who work out of the Vatican, which makes Mr. Helsing something of a supernatural bounty hunter in this film.
After finishing the job, Van Helsing returns to the Knights for yet another mission where we learn that Van Helsing has lost his memory and had been taken in by monks and had been put to work within the Order to hunt evil down. His next mission ends up being to hunt down and kill Dracula to prevent the Valerious family from falling into purgatory since they are apparently unable to enter heaven due to being cursed until they kill Dracula, which they had been trying and failing at for the past nine generations. The order also informs Van Helsing that this mission may help him remember who he once was before sending him off on this holy errand.
What follows is a mindless action movie experience with cameoes by more of Universal's famous monsters and crazy action stunt sequences laced with CGI that writer and director Stephen Sommers (Who also wrote and directed the first two Mummy movies as well as the recent G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) is best known for.
Special Features:
Blu-ray Exclusives-
-Picture-In-Picture
-BD Live
-1080p Video
-English DTS-HD Audio 5.1
Standard Defintion Features:
–Van Helsing: The Story, The Life, The Legend feature
-Track the Adventure: Secrets behind each fantastic set are revealed
-Bringing the Monsters to Life
-Dracula's Lair is Transformed
-The Music of Van Helsing
-The Art of Van Helsing
-Two Feature Commentaries
-D-Box Motion Enabled
Overall:
While Van Helsing is an attempt for Hugh Jackman to get away from the Wolverine character, you can easily replace Van Helsing with Wolverine and have no difference whatsoever on the film itself. There are times while watching where you will just keep waiting after Jackman delivers a one-liner to hear him say "bub" even though it never comes. While the movie itself is entertaining, it's about as deep as a kiddy pool and oversimplifies the Dracula (as well the rest of the Universal monster crew) mythos and never really comes off as more than a mindless action movie and never rises above the others of its ilk.
ComicsOnline gives Van Helsing 3 out of 5 monster movies.
