No! I am not alluding to myself, nor am I going to speak about Sauron or Darth Vader. No I speak of Van Helsing!!!
As is obvious this is one of the movies I watched during my break. It was tagged as a horror-flick so I decided to go alone as Megz hates horror stuff. To be frank I am not a big fan of the gooey slimy horror stuff myself and hence was pleased that the the tag was wrong. The IMDB site tags it more correctly as Action/Adventure/Horror/Fantasy/Thriller...and much more.
By now you must be feeling that this is some third rate B-grade bhelpuri of a movie. Well, you are partially right. To be perfectly honest the easiest way out for me here would be to slam the movie. I personally think that almost everyone I know will hate the movie. Yet I must confess; I absolutely loved the movie. Furthermore I was glad I watched it in the cinema hall and not on TV. Why you ask? Read on?(of course with the usual disclaimers)
The movie is NOT a horror flick; lets get that straight. What it does have are all the luminaries from the best horror literature around. And what is does with them is entertain, please note: Entertain not Terrify(though the characters are terrifying in themselves).
So here we have a movie starring Edward Hyde, Werewolves, Dr. Frankenstein?s Monster, Vampires and the father of them all; Count Dracula himself. Furthermore I read that Van Helsing too figures in Stoker?s book but I am not so sure.
They have pushed artistic liberty to its limits with they way they have played with these characters but the results are fun. We end up with a James Bond for the horror world, if you will, and the result is not all too bad. The acting department is not much to speak of, but then again it is an action flick, and hence acting was not something I expected. The fun part was the way they wove the creatures together, giving them a character that you would expect if you have read the respective pieces of literature. So you end up with totally animalistic werewolves to a monster that you care for to the granddaddy of cunning and guile, the Count himself. The story telling is fast, furious, fantastic and wonderfully unbelievable.
However all this would not have been enough. What really carries the movie are the sound and the cinematography. Beautiful is the only word I can us. The set design and attention to detail is also superlative. I did not completely agree with Hyde?s character as I felt it was more ?The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? rather than the original ?Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde? but the depiction was enjoyable. The other characters were very true to my picture of them. So were the locations and this was the best part of the movie. So we had a gloomy terrifying castle in Transylvania while we had the old urban locales of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background(only half completed) Additionally there was always a touch of humour to proceedings as every horror and thriller cliché was lampooned, without losing the plot or slipping into a mere spoof.
All in all a wonderful experience of cinema! I enjoyed it immensely. Will you?
