10 Terrible Movies That Would Have Been Much Better Off With A Different Director
6. Van Helsing
Stephen Sommers had already proven adept at reinventing Universal's classic properties as crowd-pleasing blockbusters with The Mummy, but the dismal sequel made it clear that he was just as capable of f*cking it up. Unfortunately, Van Helsing fell very firmly into the latter camp.
The idea of reinventing Dracula's arch-nemesis as a Vatican-sponsored monster hunter is as genius as high-concepts get, especially with an A-list action hero in the lead, but then Sommers wasted all of the premise's potential by deciding to stuff every single one of Van Helsing's 131 minutes to the gills with unconvincing CGI, enough action to fill an entire franchise and acting performances that turned out to be flatter than a witch's t*t.
If someone a bit less overzealous was behind the camera, then we could have had several movies that built upon and expanded the concept, explored his unique backstory and saw him tackle the likes of Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein and the Wolfman as warmups before finally getting to the long-awaited showdown with Dracula.
Instead, all of this was rushed through in the space of one movie, and Sommers' desire to accelerate through everything at a hundred miles an hour ultimately blew all of Van Helsing's franchise potential in one terrible swoop.