Van Helsing
Gabriel Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) works for a secret society within the Vatican. He has to bring in or kill all non-human creatures. Zombies, Mr.Hyde, vampires, … none of them are safe from Van Helsing. After returning from his last job, Van Helsing gets sent to Transsylvania together with brother Carl (David Wenham) to help the last of the decendants of the Valerious family in their struggle against count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh). The Valerious family isn’t doing too great as only two of them are left, Anna (Beckinsale) and Velkan (Will Kemp), the latter just having been bitten by a werewolf.
When Van Helsing arrives, he’s just in time to stop the “brides” (three female vampires) from kidnapping Anna but things aren’t quite alright from that moment on as they find out Dracula and his brides are planning on using Frankenstein’s monster to bring life to Dracula’s offspring. And while the vampires have been quite calm with only the occasional bloodsucking, they won’t be any longer when they find the monster and bring their thousands of decendants to life…
Sound and Vision:
This blu-ray release has excellent image quality which is necessary to nicely portray the cold atmosphere of Transsylvania. Compression errors are completely absent and everything looks incredibly detailed. Great!
Where Van Helsing may be a bit thin on content, the soundtrack makes up a lot for this. The DTS-HD track that we get delivered on this Blu-ray release is extremely dynamic and your speakers will know no second of rest. All channels are almost constantly used at full capacity and the subwoofer gets so much action that you may want to secure your windows in order to make sure they won’t break while watching. Fantastic!
Extras:
– Van Helsing: The story, the life, the legend
– Follow the trail of adventure
– Bringing the Monsters to Life
– You’re in the movie
– Music of Van Helsing
– Bloopers
– Dracula’s Lair is transformed
– Monster Eggs
– Audio commentary tracks
Blu-ray exclusive:
– The Maskuerade Ball scene unmasked
– The art of Van Helsing
– U-Control with picture-in-picture function
All the extras from the collector’s edition are present plus a feature on the Ball scene and some concept art. Véry good compilation that’s worthy of a Blu-ray release
Conclusion:
In the review of the DVD I said that Van Helsing has everything going for it (special effects, Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale) but just doesn’t work due to Richard Roxburgh being the worst count Dracula we’ve ever seen and also the monster from Frankenstein looking quite ridiculous.
Well, that opinion still stands, but this Blu-ray release does have something going for it: the soundtrack is mindblowing and definitely something you’ll want to show off with to your friends. Turn up the volume, secure your windows and sit back in your seat to be blown away by all the action! Add to that excellent image quality and some additional extras that weren’t present on the Collector’s Edition DVD and you’ve got one hell of a Blu-ray release!
Van Helsing may not be a great movie, but this movie shows why Blu-ray is the future!
8.0