A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Stephen Sommers - now there's a director liable to create a polarisation of views among moviegoers.  His tongue-in-cheek style and his unwillingness to take absurd movies too seriously seemed quite refreshing around the time of Deep Rising (his most derided but, ultimately, most satisfying film) and The Mummy was unusually entertaining for a dumb summer blockbuster.  Its stratospheric success must have gone to his head, because in the rushed The Mummy Returns what had seemed a perfect blend of action and wit suddenly became far less perfect.  I hate daft films that take themselves too seriously (dare I mention the name Wachowsky?) but there's surely a limit as to exactly how knowingly idiotic a film can be, and The Mummy Returns exceeded it quite considerably, ending up being particularly poor even by modern standards.  Still, it was extraordinarily successful at the box office and that's all that counts, so Sommers is back for more of the same with Van Helsing, which has also been extraordinarily successful at the box office despite having almost unanimously scornful reviews.

The one redeeming feature of The Mummy Returns was Alan Silvestri's score which had some great themes and colourful, exciting action music, though arguably it was so bombastic that it isn't such a great listening experience.  Well, for Van Helsing he's gone even more extreme - this album is essentially a 43-minute action cue.  Your reaction to that statement will likely determine your reaction to the score.  Some will lap it up and love it, others will quickly grow tired of it.  Any of this album's twelve cues would make a fine action-based component of a nice, well-rounded blockbuster score - but all twelve of them put together can really be hard to take.

The main theme is quick and catchy in the same way that Jerry Goldsmith's was for tThe Mummy, but similarly lacking in any particular substance.  The music around the theme is more impressive, with particularly fine and detailed orchestration.  Lift any piece off this album and put it on a Silvestri compilation and it would stand alongside anything he's written.  Listen to the whole album, though, and the assault on the aural senses is simply too much to take.  The album is less than 45 minutes long, but seems to last for hours because of the lack of variety in colour and tone.  I'm sure that the score in the film features the required variety, but packing the album with all the action music arguably wasn't the best approach.

Many have proclaimed this score to be the best of the year, and if endless incredibly loud action music is your thing then you may well agree.  I suspect though that many listeners will simply become drained and irritated by the endless onslaught, impressive though all of it is.  There is barely a moment's respite from it and it takes some real stamina to get your way through.

Tracks

1. Transylvania 1887 (1:26)
2. Burn it Down! (4:46)
3. Werewolf Trap (1:53)
4. Journey to Transylvania (1:33)
5. Attacking Brides (5:02)
6. Dracula's Nursery (5:46)
7. Useless Crucifix (2:35)
8. Transylvanian Horses (3:55)
9. All Hallow's Eve Ball (3:01)
10. Who are they to Judge? (2:00)
11. Final Battle (6:28)
12. Reunited (4:23)