Ancient literary monsters combined with love, wit and action make “Van Helsing” the first amazing summer blockbuster to come out this year.

A movie that has similarities between “James Bond” and “Indiana Jones,” “Van Helsing” is an action, suspense and horror all in one.

Gabriel Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is a 19th century mercenary who fights for the Vatican. He travels the world slaying monsters and other evils.

During the story, Van Helsing is required to end problems with monsters such as Dr. Jekyll, the Wolfman, the Frankenstein’s monster and Count Dracula.

Like Bond, Van Helsing uses futuristic weapons that are given to him by a friar named Carl (David Wenham) to slay his foe.

After Van Helsing’s encounter with Dr. Jekyll, he is assigned to stop Count Dracula in Transylvania.

When Van Helsing gets to Transylvania, he teams up with Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), who is an heir to a family that has tried to slay Dracula for centuries.

Throughout the film, the two repeatedly tag-team enemies and they seem to appear at precisely the right moments so that the other doesn’t die.

By using Dr. Frankenstein’s life- giving machine, Dracula would give life to thousands of baby vampires.

No one is large enough to give life to the thousands of vampires, except for Frankenstein’s monster.

Dracula and his minions had been looking for Frankenstein for a year and finally found him because the Wolfman was stalking Valerious and Van Helsing when they stumbled upon the creature.

The fight to keep the Frankenstein monster away from Dracula and his clan is the ongoing struggle between Dracula and Van Helsing.

With so many monsters to fight, the action continues throughout the whole film.

The action, combined with sexy women in sexy costumes creates an amazing combination for the target audience of men.

Stephen Somers, the director and screenwriter, said he wanted to combine all major literary monsters into one movie, but he wanted to make them all extremes compared to what most people think when they think of these monsters.

The special effects helped Somers bring his imagination to life.

In most movies with Dracula, the vampire would turn into a bat. But in “Van Helsing,” the vampires have enormous wingspans and instead of looking like small bats, they look like humans with wings.

Special effects throughout the movie were amazing. The three wives of Dracula changed from beautiful women to hideous vampires instantly.

Similar transitions happened for the Wolfman.

An incredible scene is when the Wolfman changes from man to a wolf when he sheds his skin for the wolf’s fur coat.

Transylvania and Dracula’s castle are two major settings that are breath- taking. The meticulous detail with every square inch of the set is amazing.

The writing was average because it doesn’t contain too much nor too little. The characters talk before they fight in the scenes, just like other movies.

The fight scenes are nothing too amazing either. They don’t rival movies such as “The Matrix” or “Kill Bill,” but the story will keep you wrapped up.

“Van Helsing” makes viewers laugh, scream, wince and still leave them wanting more.

(“Van Helsing” recieves four out of five stars. This movie is rated PG-13)