The opening scene of "Van Helsing" takes place on top of Notre Dame; the character (played by Hugh Jackman) whose last name serves as the title uses his medieval gadgets to defeat a large Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is the first of many monsters from old horror movies to be found in this movie. I would have liked to see Hyde come back later since he was an interesting character, albeit completely similar to the same character from "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."

This movie is a demonic roller coaster of non-stop monster action. You may as well forget the plot because the movie inextricably finds a way to link together the Wolf Man, Dracula, Frankenstein and an Order of monks from the Vatican City who fight evil. Apparently, Dracula and his three wives need to shoot electricity through the body of Frankenstein to make their ugly children come to life. When Van Helsing goes to Transylvania to vanquish Dracula, he runs into a vivacious woman (Kate Beckinsale) who also happens to be fighting Dracula.

"Van Helsing" thrives on special effects and computer-generated battle scenes. The ending tries to be much too serious and comes off as just plain stupid, simplistic and predictable. "Van Helsing" is a movie worth watching if only for the cool fight scenes.