what i heard someone say at the end credits when i saw this at cinema 2004
'"Stephen Sommers you're an arse!"
it was when "Written & Directed by Stephen Sommers" came up 😄
That's hilarious.
shareIt was pretty funny at the time and even now. Also it wasn't shouted at the screen or anything, it was just a guy in front saying it abit loudly to his mate.. I did sort of an internal LOL 😆
shareIt perfectly captures my feelings on the film. Funny thing is, my bar was low when I sat down to watch it: I just wanted a fun, dumb action movie. I wound up yelling at the screen (DVD at home - I'm not an arse, or "Stephen Sommers", if you will) because of how stupid the plot and characters were.
shareinitially when VH was announced everyone was looking forward to it as it was The Mummy guy directing and Dracula Frankenstein Wolfman in a modern big budget movie almost felt like Avengers or something (although curiously it didn't tie in with Sommers Mummy movies) plus Wolverine was VH and the Underworld/Pearl Harbour chick was an added bonus.. (remember seeing the teaser posters in a magazine was buying at the time and could see they were going for the classic Universal Frankenstein look which was awesome)
and then seeing the film the B&W 'its alive!' opening was cool/nice homage to the old Universal movies, then there was the Hunchback of ND and the CG wasn't great but still fun (who knew thered be another monster in it!).. then after that it seemed to go downhill fast trying to be like Bond/Q and silly humour/overblown CG action scenes then the whacky plot with Draculas CGI babies , Dracula and Frankenstein wernt right (CG Dracula was like a video game character and Frankenstein didn't look right/fat and both were overacting/just didn't seem right for the roles) and the CG was like a video game (the end with them all swinging over chasms was ridiculous and obviously a lame attempt to mimic the Spiderman movies).. and ending with a couple of genuine LOL moments: Wolverines "NOOOOO!" at having killed Kate Beckingsale (which was actually repeated at the end of X3 the following year and again in XMen Origins) and the WTF KB face in the clouds (which was similar to Teletubbies lol) and then there was the guys funny comment at the end credits which sort of summed it all up LOL
There were a few things at were interesting to me though.. as I said the B&W opening homage, the way they located Draculas snow castle through the mirror, the vampire ball when KB looks in the mirror and only she's there, plus the Coppola style 3 brides were fun and scary, and at times the movie felt abit like a mash of Coppolas Dracula and Frankenstein (and what would become the 2010 Wolfman) with abit of Indiana Jones
Yeah, I was pumped for it, too. Particularly given the Underworld connection with Kate Beckinsale; I love Underworld (well...the first two) - it's such a creative, slick universe to watch bang-bang-punch-punch in - so I was hoping for another cool, fun action movie with horror/sci-fi-fantasy trappings on it. Whoo-boy was I in for a horrible surprise...
You're right: the tone was all over the place. For me, the biggest stuff was that the characters seemed dumb to me. I don't mind a stupid character (Sloe from Lucky Number Slevin, for instance, is hilarious; or Zoolander, if we're going more "mainstream"), but what I want is a character who always feels like they're not making mistakes they would know better than to make. I don't remember specific examples from VanHelsing (it's been awhile since I watched it, and I only watched it once, obviously), but I remember several characters doing irrational things. Beckinsale's character in-particular did this a LOT.
It did have some interesting ideas, yes, but it was so poorly thought-out and executed that the result was less a horror/action mashup and more of a disaster picture.