Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Van Helsing (2004)

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Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 05-07-2004, 08:52 AM:

By far the best part of this movie is the sound track. It's way loud and aggressive across all the channels, so crank it up and enjoy. Of course the plot was ok at best, and the acting was ...eh. As you could probably tell from the trailers, it relied very heavily on CGI which I didn't mind, but too many of the stunts were just unbelieveable. I have no problem suspending my disbelief when a werewolf is on the screen, but when actors continually do physically impossible stunts over and over again, well, it's just too much to ask me to believe that! [Wink]

Another thing that struck me was the fact that it was action sequence after action sequence after action sequence... I'm all for keeping the pace moving along, but that almost seemed exhausting. Maybe I'm getting old. [Razz]

Despite all that, I did enjoy watching the movie. It had a lot of eye candy, and ear candy, and I'll probably watch it again in pieces. Not sure I need to sit through it start to finish again though.

Edit: Fixed spelling mistake.

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 05-07-2004, 09:16 AM:

I liked this a lot.

From start to finish, this was action. It even had a few scary parts to it. Kate Beckinsale(sp)? was great eye candy. Hugh JAckman was pretty funny. They had some good comic relief in this. As far as the stunts go, I realize that this is fake and is just fantasy. Overall a really cool film. I'd see it again.

4/5 stars

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 05-07-2004, 01:02 PM:

This movie was a blast! Sure, it was a little campy and cheesy at times, but what else should we expect? For what it is, this movie was an awesome experience. The special effects, the cinematography, and oh my the SOUND. Sure, it was extremely loud, but that was half the experience. Shame on those who lower the faders too much for this one. I can't wait to see this one again.

AJG

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 05-07-2004, 02:42 PM:

The only good line in this movie if you want to call it that, was the line by the frier.

"I smell wet dog!" [thumbsdown]

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 05-07-2004, 05:23 PM:

To me, VAN HELSING was nothing but total waste of time.

Stupid, stupid, stupid dialogue. Every scene was predictable.
CGI characters like Mr Hyde (Hulk+Shrek) look totally artificial.
The director may think that his coach-chase sequence is a "hommage" to STAGECOACH, but IMHO it only proves that CGI-doubles cannot substitute real action.

The only good things about that POS were:

- the beautiful female cast [Smile]

- The black&white "universal"-like opening sequence
- the end credits
- the fine matte paintings

The sound (heard it in DTS-6) was fine, but even good sound loses any impact when there are so few quiet passages in a 131 minute film. There are nicer ways to damage your ears than listing to neverending thunder and stupid dialogue sentences like "Take care of yourself." and "Oh my God". [Mad]

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 05-07-2004, 11:15 PM:

Attendance: 2004/05/07 19:00, Regal Hollywood 18, Huntsville, AL, Auditorium 2, Flat

Man, that was one more bad movie. It was actually fun because it's an excellent movie to make fun of. I beleive there were 9 of us.

Throughout the movie, things happened that just didn't make sense. Explosions and fire for no reason, really fake looking characters at times, people being subjected to extreme violence (being thrown at extremely high speeds into hard objects) and not being injured, etc., etc. It'll be a great movie to get the DVD of and sit around and make fun of it MST3K style. A stone bridge getting hit by lightning repeatedly and part of it blowing up. Wood falling and exploding into flames as it hit the floor, etc., etc.

I was a bit surprised at this movie being in "flat" format, since most of the movies intended to be high-box-office scoring "blockbusters" with special effects are done in scope format. This movie isn't going to be wider than 30 feet in any Huntsville or Decatur theatre, so sit closer! (Scope movies are 40 feet in the larger houses).

Most of were laughing at the movie at the end. Another thing that got us all laughing was the beginning of the credits, and how much work seemed to get put into them. If they'd taken some of that budget and used it in the movie..... The movie was a bit long, too.

By the end of the movie, I was definitely tired of seeing the evil vampire bitches flying around. That's for sure.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 05-08-2004, 01:37 AM:

This was the first film that I watched in our DLP house. I personally did not like the film. However the picture and sound were phenomenal. The soundtrack was the best part.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-09-2004, 04:24 PM:

09 May 2004, 12:40PM, Regal Cinema World 8, Eugene OR, House #3, some kind of digital sound (not sure what). Attendance around 75. Presentation OK, no complaints.

The opening sequence (in b&w) seemed promising, and was a good tribute to the old Universal monster movies.

Then things became repetitive and monotonous. [sleep]

I walked out of this after about an hour because I was getting drowzy. I was also getting a headache: The soundtrack seemed shrill and ear-piercing to me at times. This in one of the best theaters in the area for sound.

[thumbsdown]

(WAY down from me) A waste. [bs]

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 05-16-2004, 10:44 PM:

This is easily the worst movie i have seen this year so far.
First of all , the sound was obnoxious. I got good hearing and don't want my hearing to be damaged when watching such crap.
Take lessons from Kill Bill on how to use sound for effect. Here the sound was loud all the time. So sudden thuds mean NOTHING because you tune out all the sound after 5 minutes. People who did the sound for this movie are just ignorant morons who don't understand what context is. They went to the Michael Bay school of filmmaking.

As far as the action, I dont mind wall to wall action, but this was monotonous. Those CGI vampires were worse than the terrible CGI bugs in Sommer's Mummy movies. I have seen TV movies with better CGI shots than this crapfest. The Dr. Jeckyll CGI was particularly laughable. I felt like walking out after this scene. I am paying $6.50 for a matinee for this cheap looking crap? The CGI Vampires were an embarassment for a movie that claims a budget well in excess of 100M. Instead of giving us 5000 vampire shots, why not give us 2000 shots, but more realistic.

Someone should have switched the April and May lineups. Hellboy and Van helsing if they switched places would have done more justice for these movies. VH is down to only 20M this weekend and yet it was still being played in 3 or 4 screens crowding out even the late spring releases to early ends or limited showings.

Except the Frankenstein monster, I didn't give a crap about anyone. SPOILER: How does he get cured at the end?

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 05-18-2004, 12:12 AM:

Perhaps it was because I just saw Troy... or perhaps it's because I'm not a 13 year old boy who likes to see Vampire Boobies... but whatever the case, Van Helsing has got to be the worst movie of the year.

I sat in the theatre thinking of bad movies I'd rather be watching instead of Van Helsing... and I really think I'd rather watch Spy Kids 3-D or Full Frontal again than ever see Van Helsing ever ever ever.

It wasn't even a FUN movie... I think Hellboy accomplished a lot more of what Van Helsing was trying to do.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 05-18-2004, 03:48 AM:

As a person who grew up with the original Universal horror classics, I enjoyed "VAN HELSING" very much. Yes, it was very campy but it was intentionally done that way as a parody to the original films. Yes Kate Bekinsale was 'Eye Candy" and she was the best part of the movie. The black and white opening was made to look like the ending of the original "FRANKENSTEIN" film and it was very well done. I also enjoyed the end credits. By the way, Universal just released all of the original Frankenstein, Wolf Man and Dracula horror films on DVD and they are all great. The studio released many of the films before but the quality this time is much better. There are three two disc editions and all of them feature the production of the current Van Helsing film which actually made me decide to see the movie in a theatre rather than wait for it to be released on home video.

-Claude

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 06-10-2004, 09:57 PM:

I'm late in the game on this one. It closes tonight in first-run. I liked the movie very much, but it was the most exhausting experience I've ever had in a theatre. I don't think the camera stopped moving, and it was one relentless action scene after another.

I couldn't tell: were those Oompa-Loompas or Ewoks?

Some great looking women...That was one TIGHT corset on Kate Beckingsale.

I especially liked the musical score. I'm a big fan of Alan Silvestri, and he didn't let me down on this one.

I wish I would have seen this on a bigger screen (this one was about 20 feet) and with much louder sound.

Great fun...I will definitely buy the DVD.

Print looked like it was brand new, and this after a many-week run. High compliments to the Marcus Crosswoods projection crew.

I know some of the Marcus folks poke around here...I'm curious. If you are no longer THX certified, why are some of the metal placards still in place?

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 07-10-2004, 10:03 AM:

This film had one of the most mismatched soundtrack levels I have ever seen. The film blared when there was action and special effects. The dialogue seemed almost purposefully muffled (prehaps to cover up the awful fake accents?).

Even the surrounds were nothing special.

If you want to hear this sort of thing done right then listen to Hellboy (which after several repeated viewings I now rank as the second best soundtrack I have ever heard).

Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 07-20-2004, 11:38 AM:

1 of 4 stars