Van Helsing

[barsoomcore]

*leaps boldly to the defence of Steven Sommers*

Sommers has brought me too much cinematic joy to write him off as a hack. Sure, The Jungle Book was all kinds of hideous, but Huck Finn was "good enough," and Deep Rising is one of my favourite stupid monster movies of all time -- with great effects, sparkling chemistry between a couple of great leads and a story that charges full steam ahead and never apologises for coolness. The Mummy is a classic in our household, a movie Mrs. Barsoom and I watch again and again. The Mummy Returns was nothing very special but had four stomp-down awesome action scenes (swordsman attack the mansion, mummies attack the double-decker bus, Ank-Sun-Amun vs Nefertiri and Rick vs Imhotep and the Scorpion King).

I think he over-reached himself on Van Helsing and tried to cram too complicated a story into this movie (thus inflicting painful amounts of exposition on us as he tries to explain all the details), but I'm not going to just let people call him a hack and get away with it!



I totally get Sommers' taste. And usually share it perfectly. This time he went in a direction I didn't enjoy, but I'll see his next picture. Guarantee.

 

[Thanee]

... but I'll see his next picture. Guarantee.

Van Helsing 2 ?

Bye
Thanee

 

[barsoomcore]

Yer darn tooting. If it's as much an improvement over the second as The Mummy Returns was a drop from its original -- slam-dunk, baby!

 

[Kai Lord]

Or how about the fact that Richard Roxburgh, who plays Dracula, also played M in LXG, and played The Duke in Moulin Rouge?

Or that Hugh Jackman (Van Helsing) was also the same guy who played Wolverine!

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Personally, I found these less annoying than the rather basic ones that revolve around our main character. Honestly, it reminded me of Star Trek...

Spoiler

In the "What does God need with a starship?" sense. Did it only annoy me that after implying there's an archangel walking around on Earth, they do nothing to tell us why he's got no memory, and how in Heaven's name (literally) he's susceptible to lycanthropy?

I really, really, really don't think that.

Spoiler

While he kicks a lot of tail, I'd expect an archangel to mop the floor with Dracula, the Brides, and the entire Kingdom of Romania, at once. I'm pretty sure that he's a human, if a probable Wandering Jew-like immortal. He may even have been born Gabriel Van Helsing and gained immortality as a side effect of a curse when he murdered Dracula. Of course, this is guessing...but it does leave room for a sequel that explores his past in more detail.

Brad

 

[Umbran]

I really, really, really don't think that.
...snip...

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure that he's a human, if a probable Wandering Jew-like immortal. He may even have been born Gabriel Van Helsing and gained immortality as a side effect of a curse when he murdered Dracula....

Yes, but...

Spoiler

Perhaps I misheard, but I believe inthe film our hero mentions one thing her remembers - dealing with Romans back in forty-mumble AD!. That makes him much older that Dracula. And starts to make the name and epithet imply much more...

DOn't you love these spoiler conversations?

 

[buzzard]

Yes, but...

Spoiler

Perhaps I misheard, but I believe inthe film our hero mentions one thing her remembers - dealing with Romans back in forty-mumble AD!. That makes him much older that Dracula. And starts to make the name and epithet imply much more...

DOn't you love these spoiler conversations?

Spoiler

Yes, when asked about the only thing he remebers he talks of fighting the Romans at Masada. That would place his memory as going back to 72 AD.

If course why I remember something like that from a movie I abhor, I don't understand.

buzzard

 

[Arken]

Or how about the fact that Richard Roxburgh, who plays Dracula, also played M in LXG, and played The Duke in Moulin Rouge?

Or that David Wenham (Faramir and Carl fame) is also the transvestite audrey in Moulin Rouge in the scene where they sing the hills are alive with the sound of music.

 

[Thanee]

I smell a conspiracy of australian actors, here... what is next!?

Anyways, Umbran, like a friend of mine who said, he liked that the movie didn't actually explain some of that stuff, I also think that this is much better left a mystery.

Spoiler

It could also be, that Gabriel is actually the archangel and van Helsing is just a vessel used to execute his will. He could simply be an ordinary human, not even having killed Dracula himself, tho Dracula sees beyond that and talks to him as if it was the actual archangel, who had him killed a couple hundred years ago, either by himself or using another such vessel. When the priest talked to van Helsing in rome, he mentioned, that they found him on the doorsteps, badly wounded or something. Maybe he had died, if not Gabriel had selected him at that moment for this task.

You never know.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth."

Heh. There must be a reason, why they didn't become a couple there.

Also I found it quite funny, how Padme Amidala told Anakin, that it's not going to work out, dressed up like she actually wanted to tell him something completely different...

Bye
Thanee