The film starts off in Transylvania in the late 19th century and castle Frankenstein as Dr Frankenstein finishes his lifelong experiment and revives a monster made from the parts of corpses. While at the same time an angry mob is approaching to break into the castle after the Doctor. We are also at this time introduced to Dracula, who has been backing the Doctor with his experiments and reveals that he has his own agenda for the monster and kills the Doctor. The monster in anger attacks Dracula and runs off with the body of the Doctor to a nearby mill where the mob set fire to it and the monster falls into the flames.
The film jumps on a year and to Paris, where we are introduced to the hero of the film Abraham Van Helsing, on the hunt for a murderous monster called Mr Hyde, wanted in London for various crimes including murder. After a long hard battle, Van Helsing is victorious and goes off to Rome, here we find out more about the character. He is an arm of justice for a secret division of the church, wanted for murder around Europe and on the hunt for his own identity which is a mystery due to lose of memory. Van Helsing is tasked to go to Transylvania and kill Dracula in order to save the two remaining members of a family and to save all their ancestors from purgatory due to a pledge by the founder member of the family who pledged that no member of their family line would enter heaven till Dracula was killed. The film moves to Transylvania where we are introduced to the surviving members of the family on the hunt for one of Dracula’s servants, The Wolf man. After an attempt to catch the Wolfman fails, the brother falls off a cliff into a river with the Wolf man and the sister, Kate Beckinsale, is left alone to kill Dracula. In enters Van Helsing, who arrives in Transylvania with a friar who is charged to help him during the mission. In order for Van Helsing to kill Dracula he must first find his secret lair by following the Wolf man to his master. The real battle for good and evil begins….

The film goes straight into action pretty much straight from the start, as you may have guessed from both the trailers as well as the director who did both the mummy films. I heard many reports on this film, most of the time I ignore these and like to make my own mind up on a film, as such popped along to the cinema with a friend. I haven’t been to the pics for a while and as soon as I picked myself off the floor from the price of the tickets and the drinks, went into the screen and sat down for the 25 minutes of advertisements. I wish these wouldn’t be shown, nether the less onto the film.
The film is a real rollercoaster of action, sorry for the corny line but it is true in this film. I must say that in most cases I like a lot of action and although well done in the film you come to a point of wishing for a bit more padding with the storyline. Don’t let this put you off though.
The action is spectacular with chases on foot through Paris and Transylvania (including a coach chase). The action is helped along by the amazing special effects and computer graphics, which I must say are very impressive. The changing of the vampires and the wolf man are brilliantly done. The scenes and way the film is shown in the colours shown remind me a lot of the style used by Tim Burton in his films like Sleepy Hollow, the overall effect is quite effective.
Lets get on to the main point, acting. Hugh Jackman really impressed me with his portrayal of the dark, broody hero with a past to discover. The way he approached the character and way he came across on screen was very similar to his role as Wolverine in the X-Men films. The costumes used added extra effect to the mysterious dark stranger/hero he was portraying. Kate Beckinsale came across very well in the film and did very well in the action and fighting scenes, even though wearing high-heeled boots. The one weak link in the characters was Roxburgh, who played the role of Dracula. As soon as he came on the screen you thought that he was going to play one of those over-done caricatures of Dracula. I think for someone of my generation getting used to someone other than Christopher Lee playing Dracula is always difficult to adjust to. You warm to him as the film goes on and as his role in the film increased, so does his feel for the character he is playing. The role of Friar Carl played by David Wenham, obviously taking after Q in the James Bond films, adds a nice tough of light-heartedness to the film.
There was some good and different views on some of the ideas about the monsters in the film and the way it was told as a story. Personally it was nice to see the good old monsters making a comeback. As said previously it needed more story to take the edge off all the action and there was certainly some parts of the story that you feel needed explaining, maybe their saving that for a follow up. The way the film was produced in the styling of Tim Burton's films was nice to see and you can definately not criticise the special effects and makeup/costumes. Overall a film definitely worth going to watch, especially if you are a fan of the Mummy films done by the same director. A film you need to make your own mind up about rather than listen to the critics. Enjoy.