I watched “Van Helsing” last Saturday. The movie itself is quite boring. It’s rather childish and the actors aren’t convincing. There are some disgusting scenes that motivate you to vomit your lunch or whatever you have eaten before going to the movie, but there is nothing special. And it’s not really shocking. Comparing “Van Helsing” to great films of the same genre like “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and “Dance of the Vampires” I can only say that “Van Helsing” is just a piece of crap

But the movie has some nice if not revolutionary effects. Especially the creatures - mostly werewolfs - got my attention. At some point in the movie I began to think “Damn, they move like the creatures in Black & White”. “Black & White” is a nice game developed by Lionhead some years ago - the current company of Peter Moyneux, one of the founders of the famous Bullfrog company, which developed Populous some decades ago. In “Black & White” you are a god - Yes, you played a god back in Populous, too. So the perspective hasn’t changed that much - who more or less indirectly steers a creature of one’s one choice. The creature is partly somehow like a Tamagotchie to you. You have to give it something to eat, you have to praise it and to punish it depending on whether it is doing good or not. Besides that you have to master various tasks, which in the end target towards having many and happy worshipers.

But I’m getting sidetracked here. The point is, that the movement of the creatures somehow reminded me of the movement of the creatures in “Black & White&. There is something specific in it that I cannot describe. Maybe it’s because it looks somehow cool but also somehow unrealistic at the same time.

So the conclusion after watching “Van Helsing” is “I have to find time to play Black & White again.”