Barely stopping for breath, “Van Helsing” is a plotless and possibly unintended comedy that will either amuse or bore audiences.
The movie stars Hugh Jackman as an amnesiac trained by an order of monks to fight classic monsters stolen from better films. He’s sent to fight Dracula as well as save the souls of several generations of a gypsy family who have been cursed to fight the vampire. As the advance screening ticket warns, “non-stop creature violence” ensues.
The first half of the film is shameless campy fun. The film is either an action movie that’s so brainless it has to evoke laughs or a dark comedy with a testosterone injection, but writer-director Stephen Sommers gives few concrete clues as to which is correct. The character careens from monster-laden action sequence to monster-laden action sequence with little regard to things like plot or characterization. This may have been for the best as the film gets dull when it tries to add some pathos in the second half and comes off as even more ridiculous.
What story there is boils down into video game style wandering through gothic locales fighting whatever creature rears its head on a nonstop rush to kill the final boss.
While the plot fails, the film is visually stunning. The entire style of the film is an excellent updating of the fantastic mise-en-scene of the original films. Lots of ruined, crumbling, gothic architecture and fogged covered villages make up the gorgeous sets. The costuming is a perfect mix of old world elegance and modern cool. How Kate Beckinsale fights in a corset and high heels is baffling, but looks great. The special effects are seamless overall and the transformations are on the whole impressive. The one glaring flaw is the CGI werewolves which would have appeared much better using more traditional techniques.
The film tends to rely on the viewer’s familiarity with the mythologies and iconography of the various monsters to give both “depth” and impact. Many images and shots are ripped from classic horror films, including the hilariously over the top opening sequence which is a remix of the climax from the Borris Karloff “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein.” The design of Van Helsing himself seems stolen from the anime “Vampire Hunter D.” There are fun touches generally, but sometimes the images are a bit much, such as a scene near the end that looks suspiciously like the cover of a romance novel.
“Van Helsing” is also a James Bond movie in Universal horror film drag. It’s got a Bond in Van Helsing, a Q like sidekick who provides the “high tech” gadgets, and a Bond girl in Bekinsale. It even has the monologue spewing arch villain with a doomsday plot and quirky hench-monsters. It’s possibly the best (or at least the most entertaining) Bond movie in ages even if it was designed to sell videogames and action figures.
It is a brainless movie, but it is a fun movie as well. Taken seriously or as anything more then a popcorn summer blockbuster “Van Helsing” would be a terrible film, but viewed as brainless action fluff mixed with cheesy melodrama it’s an amusing diversion.
