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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mog Elffoe" data-source="post: 1530960" data-attributes="member: 793">I rated it a 4.  If I were grading it I'd give it a C-.  I really wanted to like this movie.  It's the kind of stuff that I normally love.  I love the IDEA of this movie.  It could've been great.  Some of it was great.  Most of it doesn't work, for me, anyway.I wanted some atmosphere.  I wanted the movie to be spooky as well as fun.  I wanted the characters to be COOL, but the movie never slows down enough for us to really care about them, and they do say some dumb, DUMB stuff.  (Especially the bit about the bomb with the power of the sun and not knowing how it'll come in handy against vampires!  What!?  They all knew what the standard vampire's weaknesses were--he was loading Van Helsing up with stakes, crosses, holy water, etc.--but he doesn't know how a sunlight bomb could ever come in handy!?)I'm all about cool special effects, but I want to be able to actually SEE them.  The camera is constantly whizzing around and the creatures are almost always a blur.  When the vampire brides and the werewolves actually stood still I thought they looked great.  If you have a good effect, like this movie did, SHOW IT OFF.  I did NOT like the makeup on Frankenstein's Monster at all.  The neon green lightning in his head really, really bothered me.  I didn't care for his character and place in the plot either.  Every time he spoke (I mean bellowed) I cringed.  He may as well have just broke out into 'Putting On the Ritz'.  What was with all the swinging?  I understand that it's a swashbuckling action film and that's what these kinds of characters are apt to do, but this movie had more swinging in it than Spider-Man 1 and all of the Tarzan movies ever made combined.  I hated, hated, HATED the score.  It just never let up.  It was constantly blaring.  I mean, Van Helsing is strolling down a corridor and we're pounded with music that makes it seem like he's zooming through the Death Star.  I kept wanting to tell this movie to JUST SHUT UP.  Music is an important part of a movie, but when it's overused or used inappropriately it loses all effectiveness.There were a lot of things that I did like in the movie.  I liked all of the main actors quite a bit.  They were really into it and really tried.  They just had some really, really lame dialog to work with.  I dug all of the castles and giant sets, along with the costume design.  The production was top notch.  I liked the creature designs for the vampire brides and werewolves a lot.  I just wished that they'd slow down a bit so that I could enjoy them more.Not that I minded really--I thought the whole bit with the full moon was fun in the movie--but it didn't seem that lycanthropy was really that much of a curse.  So you're a werewolf?  OK, just stay inside.  As long as the light of the full moon doesn't touch you you'll never change.  It'd just be a bit of an inconvenience, is all.</blockquote>

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