One of the most annoying trends you'll see with modern Hollywood movies is the director who gets too much money to play with and it ruins him as a filmmaker. Stephen Sommers, director of Van Helsing, is a perfect example.

A few years ago Sommers had great success with The Mummy - a fun summer popcorn movie that had its share of special effects, but was ultimately entertaining because of the characters and a few clever set pieces. It went on to make a whole boat load of money, and as studios usually do they reward the director with an inflated budget for their next effort. The result was the terrible sequel The Mummy Returns, which basically concluded with the whole world being sucked up in one big CGI-mess of a vacuum.


At first, with Van Helsing I thought Sommers had avoided making the same mistake twice. In fact, the first half hour or so is actually pretty good, so long as you don't get too distracted by Kate Beckinsale's exaggerated Romanian accent. The film ties in nicely with the classic Frankenstein, supposedly taking its start right after the end of that movie. But as the story continues the inevitable occurs: with lots of dough to spend, special effects begin to overwhelm every action scene and it all becomes very boring.

This isn't to say Van Helsing is as bad as The Mummy Returns, but it should have been a lot better with a charismatic actor like Hugh Jackman in the lead.

Posted November 11, 2004 | link