..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

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The secret ingredient that transforms most Dracula movies is a good Van Helsing. After all the Count has it all - immortality, looks and charm. Conversely, the vampire hunter mostly has obsession but that drive ought to make him even more frightening than his quarry.

Theoretically, retelling the vampire myth from the perspective of the hunter should make a dandy yarn. However, Van Helsing as conceived by filmmaker Stephen Sommers is a bloated, high decibel affair that has more gadgets than grit and stands the myth awkwardly on its ear. It is not so much mindless as it is ill conceived; turning its protagonist (portrayed by the dashing Hugh Jackman) into a soldier of fortune for the Vatican on his latest adventure in the grim environs of Transylvania.

Dracula may be the focus of our hero’s latest pursuit to eradicate evil from the face of the earth but Sommers can’t leave well enough alone. He’s also inserted Frankenstein’s monster and the legend of the Wolfman into the mix. And in his quest to be all things for all audiences, there’s a romantic interest in the form of Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale speaking with a cartoonish Balkan accent), spawn of a noble line of vampire killers; and comic relief provided by Friar Carl (David Wenham), the papal equivalent of James Bond weaponry outfitter Q.

Opening with a nod to Univesal’s 1930s monster movies, the film sets up Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) as patron to mad scientist Victor Frankenstein. The titled blood sucker salivates over the doctor’s creation as the inbred villagers sack his lab and burn him to a crisp in the local windmill. Meanwhile, in Paris, the intrepid Van Helsing is doing battle with Mr. Hyde on the rooftops of the city with Notre Dame looming in the background. It’s all terribly evocative and visceral, yet seemingly unconnected to the rest of the story.

Returning to Rome for his next assignment, we learn that Van Helsing has no memory of his past and that’s the carrot a Vatican cardinal dangles as he sends him on a mission to vanquish Dracula and protect the Valerious clan that have been holding his reign of terror in check for decades.

The film is an impressive series of set pieces loosely basted by a plot that is at best serviceable given the pumped up adrenaline pacing. Frankenstein’s monster, for no apparent reason, is the life force that will awaken the thousands of bat children conceived by the Count and his trio of brides. Anna’s brother has been transformed into a werewolf and subjugated by the vampire but, according to Sommer’s mythology, is also the only being capable of vanquishing Dracula. While the filmmakers introduce several intriguing notions and permutations, they rely too often on coincidence and happenstance to push the narrative along.

The effects themselves are also in need of a rethink. The double-edged sword that is computer generated illusion is, on the pro side, the ability to do virtually anything. Still, with it comes a serious diminution of one’s suspension of disbelief. When a character swings across a phony ravine one ought to be going ‘‘ooooh” and too often the response elicited is: they did it in the lab.

Bram Stroker’s Abraham Van Helsing was sixty and, perhaps, a distant relative of Jackman’s Gabriel Van H. One can recognize the allure of transforming him into a superhero but in so doing it seriously unbalances the stakes between the incarnation of evil and a mere mortal. Even McDonald’s has come to the realization that super sizing is a bad idea and one can only hope the Hollywood majors will emerge from their current misguided reverie and realize bigger is not in itself better.

- Leonard Klady

Release Date: May 7, 2004
Rated: PG-13

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Starring: Hugh Jackman,
Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, Elena Anaya, David Wenham

Produced by: Bob Ducsay



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Distributor: Universal Pictures.

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Review Date: May 7, 2004