Who doesn't HATE Van Helsing?

[Dinkeldog]

I'm watching it right now. Maybe not a masterpiece, but quite good for the genre.

 

[MadMaxim]

Sorry, but it blew my suspension of disbelief. *shrug*

Oh, I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, Brother Shatterstone. It's just that I seem to see more people dislike movies because they weren't EXACTLY the way they thought it would be. Nothing wrong with expectations, but people should perhaps lower them a bit instead of thinking that they're seeing the top of an art form. This is just an action movie, nothing more nothing less.

 

[Mercule]

I was an acceptably entertaining movie. Not great, but worth watching, maybe even a second time. That places it above many movies that I hear quite a few people absolutely rave about (say, "Kill Bill", which wasn't a complete waste of my time, but I have no intent of seeing it again).

 

[WizarDru]

I loved it. Everyone I know loved it. The only people that didn't seem to be here on ENWorld.

It was just a fun movie. I really think that some people go to movies expecting far more than they should...especially us geeks.

The only people? Well, now I beg to differ. It didn't flop, but it was so expensive to make that it didn't do that well, relatively speaking.

 

[takyris]

I caught it on cable, and recorded it. My wife and I watched it later and MST3k'd it, and by those standards, it was a hoot.

That said, if I'd paid money to go see it, and had been in a theater where I couldn't riff on the stupid lines, stupid action, stupid logic, or general stupid choice in the movie, I'd have been sorely disappointed.

Aside from the sidekick guy, who appears to be giving the fake-crippled guy from "There's Something About Mary" and the annoying sidekick guy in Jackie Chan's "The Medallion" a run for his money as "Most annoying British sidekick EVAR", I found most of the badness to be enjoyably silly badness -- like Kate Beckinsale face-planting into a concrete pillar, flying through the air to face-plant into a wall, crashing into all kinds of scenery, and coming up just fine, but when Wolf-Helsing knocks her into a cushioned couch, she dies. It was quite possibly the first time I'd ever seen hit points so blatantly used in a movie. "No, no, that concrete pillar face-plant only took her to 19 hit points. She's fine."

The wives were awesome, if only because I have a goofy nostalgia for old Meatloaf videos, and my wife kept singing "And I would do any-thing for looooove... but I won't do that... hey-yeaaaaaaah...." every time they appeared. And my wife has a voice that can carry this off.

The convoluted logic of "Werewolves can kill Dracula, therefore he must keep a cure for lycanthropy on hand at all times" was awesome. Uh, honestly, if I was the Drac, and I knew that werewolves could kill me, I wouldn't have a cure for lycanthropy lying around. I'd have, y'know... silver.

Honestly, I saw this as a movie with a lot of potential, a movie that was obviously made with a lot of love. But love isn't a substitute for ability, and it was made so sloppily, so stupidly, and just so generally badly that it pretty much qualified as a colossal failure in my view. But a colossal failure made with love can still be fun to watch... provided you're allowed to make fun of it.

 

[frankthedm]

It was a cool movie, until the girl dies. If there's a sequel, I'd watch it.

Boo hoo, some trashy eye candy dies rather than living to the end, to be replaced by another actress when the original becomes too old for the sequal. Hollywood is too addicted to having the heroine live to the end so she can ride off with the hero.

I think croaking her helped the movie, allowing for the audience to see Gabe has little to no luck in such matters. Plus i found the unrersolved question at the end amusing.

Overall the movie was fun and dumb and a passable stand-in for a Castlevania movie. Dracula even took an End Boss form.

The First werewolf was really cool, Crinos [ogre] sized and moving like a furred bullet. The Black furred one looked pretty cool.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I actually enjoyed it. I actually started watching it figuring I'd hate it. VH isn't great by any means, but it was a fun movie that I didn't feel like I wanted that hour and a half of my life back.

Kane

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I was just disappointed in it.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Nothing wrong with expectations, but people should perhaps lower them a bit instead of thinking that they're seeing the top of an art form. This is just an action movie, nothing more nothing less.

Which wasn’t the case for me… I did like Phantom Menace after all.

They screwed the pooch on the screenplay and/or how they went off and killed the female lead.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hold on a sec. Posting on a site that's all about pretend characters doing impossible things like shoot fireballs out of their hands, flying wihtout the aid of machinery, and falling inane distances and getting up and walking away, and you're concerned about the reality of someone's footwear?

If so, I'm sorry, but in a movie with vampires, werewolves, and living creatures assembled from corpses, the shoes just don't cut it as a complaint. Perspective, dude, perspective.

Answer: I do not know how magic works, I do know how fencing works. If the physics of the world are such as to allow magic then there is no problem with its use, however sword fighting in high heels is asking for a broken ankle. It is something that exists, and should be handled appropriately.

The Auld Grump