Bond's Reviews

Hi everyone, I've decided to start a review forum because ever week I have to write a free writing piece in my school to prepare me for honors English next year in high school. I love movies so I figured I would write movie reviews on some weeks. When I do, i'll post them here for everyone to read them. Also, alot of people review movies on dvd and vhs so I thought that it would be cool to review movies that I have seen in the theatre lately. Finally, I rate movies on a 1-10 scale. Ten is the best and one is the worst.

Enjoy!

Stars: 5.5
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh
Director: Steven Sommers
Writer: Steven Sommers
Country USA
Length: 130 min.
Rating: Pg-13
Released: 2004
Van Helsing Trailer

Found on the steps of a church in Vatican City as a baby, Van Helsing (Jackman) becomes part of an ancient top secret society dedicated to ridding the world of evil. His job: kill evil at all costs.

The movie Van Helsing begins on a humid night in Paris. Van Helsing prowls the streets searching for Mr. Hyde, the murderer of around 20 people. After learning that he is the most wanted man in Europe, he finds Hyde in a cathedral. After a very unbelievable fight scene, Van Helsing kills Hyde and returns to Vatican cityfor more orders. His superior, the head of the society, sends him on a tough job in Transylvania to assist the Valacious family in assassinating Dracula and his brides so that 9 generations of their family won’t be in vein. Van Helsing accepts to go. This is where the real adventure begins.

Before he goes, he gets some new gadgets including a gas powered, rapid fire crossbow and some holy items in the movie’s version of the Q-lab. Once he is ready to go, he leaves for Transylvania with his side-kick, a friar. After a long journey, they arrive in a small village in Transylvania where they are unhappily greeted by townspeople with various primitive weapons. After being surrounded by a raging mob for a few minutes, a woman named Amy Valacious (Beckinsale), has the crowd move away so she can talk to him. While talking, the townspeople are ambushed by the brides of Dracula! Van Helsing kills one of the three in one of the best parts of the movie and slowly earns Amy’s trust. Together, they go to fight Dracula and other monsters in this classic monster tale.

Van Helsing is an interesting action adventure movie. Steven Sommers has become great friends with CGI since The Mummy Returns. In Van Helsing, CGI is way overused, and in some cases poorly done. The worst CGI of all was Mr. Hyde in the very beginning. He looked like he could fit into movies such as Shrek or Finding Nemo. Hugh Jackman was one of the highlights of the movie. He did a decent job as Van Helsing and kept the movie interesting. Kate Beckinsale does a good job although her accent changes throughout the movie. The worst actors though were the brides of Dracula, as they were little more than eye candy when they weren’t in bat form. There is also some terrible dialogue written in. Van Helsing opens a door with a Latin inscription by saying it in English at one point of the movie. The movie has an interesting ending that made me think that there will be a sequel. To conclude, Van Helsing was an ok movie that didn’t meet my expectations after seeing the preview.