Van Helsing (UMD)

This was a movie I really wanted to like. It's a great-looking flick with a really cool underlying idea and some decent actors. Somehow, though, it just couldn't pull everything together. I certainly enjoyed Van Helsing, but I was left with the persistent idea that it could have been so much better, if only . . .

Pretty

There's do doubt that Van Helsing looks good. There are more special effects crammed into this movie than any movie I've seen other than Star Wars. The costumes, while perhaps not especially accurate to the time period, are likewise great looking. The gadgets and weapons, while extremely unlikely, are just really cool, and I was happy to suspend my disbelief about their implausibility. There are some breathtaking action sequences -- the action is pretty much non-stop, actually -- that will keep the adrenaline-junkies happy.

Pretty Lame

Unfortunately, the great ideals and eye-popping visuals are strung together by a plot that feels ike it was written for the sole purpose of, well, stringing together the ideas and visuals. Story is not the strong point in this movie.

One thing that bugged me was that this movie's Gabriel Van Helsing is not Dracula's Van Helsing, who was Abraham. I don't so much mind the name change as the fact that it isn't explained. It's just one more flaw in a picture I very much wanted to love.

Extras

Like most UMD releases, this one's short on extra features. Even the regular edition of the DVD had a whole pile of behind the scenes footage and other goodies. There are outtakes incuded on the UMD, at least, which is more than a lot of other UMD movies get (Hellboy, for example, had no extra features at all).

I thought Van Helsing was worth watching, and I'll watch it again for the cool stuff, but it's not a favorite.