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The filmmakers are taking pains to avoid spoilers, cautioning everyone who has seen the movie not to reveal what transpires in the final half-hour. What they don't warn us about is how much the movie begins to drag at about the 90-minute mark. And there's still almost 45 minutes to go.

The hero of the title, who is played by Hugh Jackman, is a famous hunter in the 19th century of all those deemed dangerously evil. His assignment is to high-tail it to Transylvania to dispose of the region's most famous nocturnal bloodsucker, played by Richard Roxburgh.

In the movie's most original twist, Van Helsing's orders come from a top-secret ecumenical religious cabal based in Rome. Muslim clerics work alongside Buddhist monks and Catholic priests in their collaborative effort to rid the world of evil. From our modern vantage point, the notion of such intra-religious cooperation seems almost as far-fetched as the existence of bat-winged vampires and hirsute werewolves.

Though the real contest is between Van Helsing and Dracula, Frankenstein and a couple of other creatures figure into the story. No matter that Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley and whoever invented werewolves didn't set their stories in the same place or time. A convoluted plot is woven around the characters, but the multi-fanged approach does produce more monstrous bang for our buck. Even Victor Frankenstein, the monster's creator, makes a brief appearance. One almost expects to see Frau Blucher from Young Frankenstein.

The dashing Jackman plays his part well enough, but the script doesn't provide sufficient Indiana Jones-style bons mots to win us over.

Van Helsing is about what you'd expect from Stephen Sommers, who directed the mediocre but hugely successful Mummy. It does have a more handsome look than the Mummy movies, but this re-telling of Dracula hardly counts. (PG-13 for action violence, frightening images and sensuality. Opens tonight at midnight in many U.S. cities and nationwide Friday.)

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clara pandy wrote:

Well, being an original film script, at least won't trash a good comic (just a few good books...), as other films have done...

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Swedish Nightingale wrote:
Sometimes I leave a film and realise I disliked it. Or hated it. This one... 15 minutes into the film.

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clara pandy wrote:

Maybe the real trouble is that the good ol' "B-series" concept is lost somehow...

But now, if you go to the movies, you have to pay a rather expensive ticket to see just ONE picture, and only ONCE... so in case you don't like the movie it makes you feel worse still.

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