There were positives and negatives to the 2004, Hugh Jackman-led Van Helsing movie, but given how many negatives there were in comparison to positives a reboot has a lot of ground to cover in order to make up for this tremendous, wall to wall action gaffe that could have buried the Dark Universe had it been a part of it. The funny thing about this is that great actors can be a part of bad movies and even their star power can’t always redeem what started off as a dumpster fire. Van Helsing was, as Scott Campbell of We Got This Covered has said, a commercial failure since it took far too much content and tried to stuff itself full in order to cover as many bases as possible. Jekyll and Hide was pretty much tossed out as a brief treat to the audience but cast aside before the movie ever really got its legs under it, while Frankenstein became something of a preachy, overbearing fussbudget that was way below expectations. The werewolves were interesting, as were the vampires, as their jaws could unhinge like a snake in order to get a better grip on their prey. Sadly though the CGI made it look as though they were going to swallow their intended prey whole like an anaconda, though the flesh ripping away to reveal the werewolves was pretty interesting. Plus, giving Van Helsing a Vatican sanction, high-tech weaponry for the time period, and actually turning him into a werewolf at one point, a humongous black alpha no less, was intriguing.
But eventually it all conspired to be too much. There was no doubt that Jackman’s character was supposed to be the mysterious alpha male that knew what to do, had a way out of just about every situation, and was in charge of the moment no matter how it might have appeared. That was the problem, along with many other things, since the Van Helsing that many people have read about and remember throughout the years as a warrior of sorts against the dark forces that he hunted, but this movie didn’t just take things an extra mile down the road, it took people a few country miles along a horror show that just didn’t stop to catch its breath that often. Hearing that the script was rewritten in 2017 and that now there’s a chance it might be getting a remake is kind of hard to fathom since one has to wonder if the script is going to demand just as much action and just as many monsters, or if cooler heads prevailed and we’ll see a story that is both well-defined and entertaining while still retaining its sense of wonder and danger.
It’s been stated that younger actors are being sought out for the main role of Van Helsing, which could indicate that the movie will either be restructured to show his ascension to the life of a vampire hunter, or could possibly be taking a different path. In any case the movie can get worse, but the hope is that it doesn’t, and that the audience will get to see something that’s a little more balanced when it comes to horror, thrill, and perhaps even a hint of comedy here and there. This was definitely one aspect of the movie that fell a little flat since the comedic portions were funny at some points, but the effect felt strained, forced even, and was therefore DOA more often than not when it should have had people chuckling at the very least. Plus, a fight between a werewolf and Dracula would be an epic battle scene and it was likely that many people were expecting this since the two are immensely powerful monsters in their own right. We’ve seen in movies such as Underworld that werewolves can be insanely powerful and even overtake vampires that aren’t trained in how to kill the lycanthropes, or aren’t master vampires such as Dracula has been classified for so long. Monster fights have almost always been epic in any sense considering that most of the movie monsters we’ve seen have been overpowered in some way that elevates them well above normal human beings. That’s why watching a werewolf fighting a vampire is awe-inspiring, or watching Frankenstein’s monster fight Dracula is a worthy fight.
That’s one of the things to hope for with this movie at least, as simply hoping that it can surpass the original would be great. Some might not think that it can get any worse, but tempting fate isn’t all that wise since things can always get worse. This time around though it’d be nice to see the filmmaker taking on the project learn from the mistakes of the past instead of just trying to improve on them. This could be a great movie, if it’s handled with the respect it needs.
Follow Us
