Ah! Stephen Sommers, I forgot
Universal Studios has always paid tribute to its past through monster movies. The beginning of Universal was pretty much funded on the classic ‘B’ movies featuring some of the best known monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman). So it’s no surprise that when Sommers picked up the gig for Van Helsing that he wrote and directed a gigantic tribute to Universal’s past. Regretfully, The Mummy director forgot to include a solid story.
The story of Van Helsing (the character) stretches back to Brom Stoker’s original Dracula book. He was a professor and protagonist that were always against evil. This film takes that character and turns him from scientific genius to unreal badass. Played by Hugh Jackman, Van Helsing works for the Catholic Church and is sent across the world to find and destroy Dracula in Transylvania. When he gets there all hell has broken loose as Dracula himself has far bigger plans for Transylvania, which include unleashing his unborn (soon to be born) children on the world and basically wiping out the human race. The problem for Dracula, outside of Helsing, is that his children seem to have a problem popping. So to bring them to life he needs the immortality that Frankenstein holds. Helsing must stop him before he completes his plans or he runs the risk of watching all humans get wiped out.
For the majority of the movie you’re in awe and wonder of how cool everyone looks. Jackman, fresh out of X-Men is buff and toting a large ego with Helsing’s character. Dracula, who is played by Richard Roxburgh (Moulin Rouge), is quite powerful and convincing as someone who has been around the world and is pretty angry. Even Kate Beckensale as Anna isn’t so bad during the end montage/climax. All of these characters are strong (and even more exist in the film), but the problem with the film is that these characters are so well-known and so built up that they don’t fit the shallow story that was built around them; that is the main problem with Van Helsing. Sommers wanted everyone to see some new updated classic monsters so bad that hey forgot to put in a strong storyline to support them. The story of Dracula wanting his tiny children to live and kill is a bit…. well, it’s not very strong. Now, Sommers did pay great homage to classic horror characters, but seriously the story just fit these folks. Sommers has had a problem with that in his films, sans The Mummy. He has consistently demonstrated that his characters are far more important than his story foundation. If you need more proof look no further than this summer’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra film; strong characters, horrible story to fit them.
Not everything is blu
The biggest points that this blu-ray scores is that it’s simply gorgeous. Much like all Universal Studios films, when they get the royal blu-ray treatment they come out looking shiny and beautiful. When Helsing enters Transylvania for the first time a cold chill will run up your body because the snowy surroundings look so real. It was a nice pleasure seeing this on a 1080 and 720p set. As for the audio, action and horror are a perfect chance to scare you to death via the audio. This blu-ray makes no bones about its intentions to do so with the audio. You’ll jump and you’ll feel compelled to keep watching when you hear it in action.
As for the features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Van Helsing: The Story, The Life, The Legend
– Track the Adventure (pretty cool feature)
– Bringing the Monsters to Life
– Dracula’s Lair is Transformed
– The Music of Van Helsing
– The Art of Van Helsing
– Commentaries
– BD-Live
– More
It’s something when the special features are better thought-out than the film. You get a very good set of features with this blu-ray and enough to make you feel sorry about how great the film could have been. Still, these are probably worth checking out, even if the film isn’t.