A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Van Helsing

Date Viewed: 5/29/04

Details:

Hugh Jackman

Kate Beckinsale

Richard Roxburgh

David Wenham

Shuler Hensleyen Sommers

Score: Alan Silvestri

Score: 1/2

The Review: A pastiche of evil folktales and stories, sausage melange: if you were to put through the meat grinder some of the Frankenstein mythos, a large dollup of the Dracula and vampire mythos, and a not insubstantial part of the werewolf mythos, this would be the result. A critical component would be the seasoning -- a bit of sage (wisdom), please -- which could have been improved.

Van Helsing (Jackman) is on a mission from God -- well, sort of, as an agent of a secret semi-Catholic order dedicated to ridding the world of such evil demons and mutants as Mr Hyde and Dracula. His methods are not pretty, but they're generally effective, if misinterpreted: so much so he's wanted for murder across most of Europe. For this adventure, he's assigned by the Order, Carl (Wenham), a Dominican friar -- both as requisite humorous sidekick and as the (Bond-ish) "M" character, providing a flow of unusual (and occasionally anachronistic) weapons to Jackman's Van Helsing. (And in an amusing sub-thread, we are led to believe that being a friar somehow allows certain "exemptions" from the monastic life; uh huh...) Beckinsale is the Transylvanian noble who just wants Dracula dead, for reasons too complicated to explain in anything shorter than the duration of the movie.

Good score by Alan Silvestri, including the closing credits.

Curious castle designs, for both Frankenstein and Dracula. One wonders where they found the architects (or the drugs to give the architects) in late medieval times and the remote backwaters of Transylvania, let alone the construction crews.

ILM critters and SFX are reasonably well done. And for the first time, we see intimate details of the vampire life cycle -- actually, more than you might ever want to see. And we see a different side of evil ewoks, or something so close as to be equivalent.

(15-June-04)

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