Van Helsing

[Desdichado]

jasamcarl, you make a good point, about how we sometimes want to like a movie so bad that we convince ourselves that we do.

I went with five other guys, and all of us liked the movie. Ironically, (at least I think so) almost every one of these guys was ripping LXG a new one for flaws that were in the same league (no pun intended) as Van Helsing. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Van Helsing and LXG had as much in common as just about any recent movies I've seen. The two are very directly comparable.

So why did they dislike LXG so much and like Van Helsing? Maybe because they wanted to so much? Because the actors were arguably more charismatic? Because the comic relief was a bit better? I don't know. I liked them both equally, i.e., they were relatively brainless action/FX films made by committee.

 

[jasamcarl]

Maybe he should learn how to express himself?

I guess that review is supposed to be 'funny' while also showing his opinion.

Well he certainly succeeded in the latter, but not so in the first.

I couldn't care less about what this guy writes...

Maybe he should read some of his own complains... like 'noisy', 'uncharismatic', etc.

Bye
Thanee

Um, because he was expressing a sincere emotion of disgust at the movie as oppossed to simply trying to pummel the audience out of any critical faculties, I don't think that 'noisy' for him carrys the same implication as it does for a ponderous two hour spectacle.

But its your loss. The guy is actually inciteful, and the profanity is (usually) not gratuitous, but makes sense in the context of his 'character'. Though i understand how some can get off on a bad start with Filthy, so it's best to read more than one review.

If you want a more traditional and overtly erudite panning of this film, you can't go wrong with the guys at the New York Times:

http://movies2.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/movies/07VAN.html

 

[jasamcarl]

jasamcarl, you make a good point, about how we sometimes want to like a movie so bad that we convince ourselves that we do.

I went with five other guys, and all of us liked the movie. Ironically, (at least I think so) almost every one of these guys was ripping LXG a new one for flaws that were in the same league (no pun intended) as Van Helsing. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Van Helsing and LXG had as much in common as just about any recent movies I've seen. The two are very directly comparable.

So why did they dislike LXG so much and like Van Helsing? Maybe because they wanted to so much? Because the actors were arguably more charismatic? Because the comic relief was a bit better? I don't know. I liked them both equally, i.e., they were relatively brainless action/FX films made by committee.

Believe me, it's something i've been guilty of in the past.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not trying to dog on those who sincerly liked the movie for whatever reason. I was just trying to counter the vibe of 'a movie like this doesn't have to be good, and critics to aknowledge and celebrate this' that i'd been getting from some of it's proponents.

 

[WayneLigon]

Hey I can give you all a different reason for the "Gabriel" thing.

From IMDB...

So that the production company can hold certain rights to the character, the original character from the Dracula series Abraham Van Helsing was changed to the new 'kid brother' Gabriel Van Helsing instead.

Director Stephen Sommers claimed in an interview he changed the main character's name from "Abraham Van Helsing" to "Gabriel Van Helsing", as he did not think he could have a lead character named "Abraham". The Irishman who wrote Dracula, Bram Stoker, named the character after himself - Bram being a shortening of "Abraham".

Which are obviously two different explanations. Which is correct, I have no idea. I'd probably go with the one about rights; usually if there is an otherwise inexplicable change to a literary character, that's the reason to go with. The other one being 'I just felt like it' on the part of the director

 

[WayneLigon]

So why did they dislike LXG so much and like Van Helsing?

I liked both of them, for different reasons. Probably the reason they didn't like LXG was that they'd read the comic and expected it (certainly not an unreasonable expectation) to stay very close to the source material? If I'd gone to see LXG 'cold' -- without being told by several sources that they'd taken a great number of liberties with the graphic novel -- I probably would have felt the same way, or maybe not; they were so different from each other that I might have been able to do what I actually did do: enjoy the film on it's own merits.

In general I liked Van Helsing; I went to see it Fri, then again Sun with a different group of people. I didn't go into expecting anything more or less than what I got. so I was pretty happy with it.

 

[Thanee]

Um, because he was expressing a sincere emotion of disgust at the movie... Though i understand how some can get off on a bad start with Filthy, so it's best to read more than one review.

That might be, but to me it looked very much like an extreme case of exaggeration, which only has a single goal... to please his fan base, who surely expect him to write bad reviews in this style!

I cannot take the opinion of a person like that seriously, sorry.

Bye
Thanee

P.S. the link above doesn't work without registering, and I hate to be forced to register to read a public review or anything, so well... they can keep it to themselves in that case.

 

[Harp]

While having nothing but the utmost respect for Eric's grandmother, I must say that the Filthy Critic has a new convert. The following quote so totally sums up my feeling about the movie:

Van Helsing is like riding shotgun with an ADD meth freak who keeps swerving onto sidestreets because "there's something totally cool I want to show you in this dumpster," when all you really want to do is get home. Maybe a couple detours are cool, but when the entire trip is nothing but aimlessly digging through strangers' trash, it gets...old fast.

 

[Piratecat]

After scanning the site, I think his reviews are surprisingly insightful, too; they just aren't appropriate to be posted here due to language.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I think the horrible plot problems (the timing of the werewolf curse, the 12 strokes of the bell that took a good five minutes, Van Helsings mysterious past being vaguely hinted at rather than revealed,

Spoiler

and just why the heck did Van Helsing have Dracula's ring anyway?

) I actually managed to enjoy the movie.

I think this was because I couldn't believe just how fast paced it was. Any dialogue or meaningful plot was dealt with as quickly as possible so that we could get on with the next action sequence. The comedy sidekick was probably the best acted, and certainly had all the best lines.

 

[Alzrius]

On a related note, has anyone read the one-shot Van Helsing comic from Dark Horse Comics? "Beneath the Rue Morgue" takes place just after his encounter with Mr. Hyde, but before he returns to Vatican City. It's quite good, serving as a nice little extra to the movie.