The story is very convoluted but it comes down to Dracula (Gerard Butler) is search of Van Helsing's (Christopher Plummer) daughter Mary (Justine Waddell) in modern day New Orleans.

Let's get the negatives out of the way: Jonny Lee Miller is TERRIBLE; Plummer's accent is pretty obviously fake; there's far too much product placement for Virgin Records and the vampires crack terrible jokes. All that aside the movie is quick, it's fun, beautifully and atmospherically shot. The script is interesting--it gives Dracula a new origin which fits but is pretty silly too. Dracula is a reanimated corpse...trying to give him a different origin is pretty dumb. Also, crosses don't affect vampires anymore...it just annoys them. Also there's plenty of blood and violence on hand and erotic sexual seduction by Dracula.

With the sole exception of Miller the acting is good. Plummer works (despite the accent); Omar Epps is having a whale of a time; Justine Wadell is good and Esposito, Ryan and Fitzpatrick make a good team of scary (and sexy) vampires. Gerard Butler is fantastic as Dracula. He's young, VERY handsome, has curly black hair and a buff body. Also he portrays Dracula's sexuality and violence very well.

So a slick, fast-moving and fun vampire movie. Worth catching.

So here we have it: Dracula updated for the new millennium, a cross between Victorian repression and modern-day themes, all wrapped up in a package not too dissimilar from Hammer's Dracula 1972 A.D. I'm really not too sure what to make of it. Compared to the Dracula flicks of old, this is vampire-lite; a film happy to go through the old clichés without adding much of anything new to the mix (aside from a last-real twist that attempts to pair the Dracula myth to the Bible, but is only partly successful and seems a little bit as if it's been thrown in for the sake of it). On the other hand, compared to much modern horror, it does the job: there's plenty of action, an interesting cast and a not-too-stupid script. We could happily live without this film's existence, but it isn't really a chore to watch.

The first surprise is with the titular casting: a pre-stardom Gerard Butler plays the vamp here, on the first rung of the ladder to fame. For much of the production I was just thinking how young Butler looks, and how his acting is nothing compared to what it is later on (such as in 300). He plays sort of a goth-type Dracula, all wavy black hair and long black coat, but the romance surrounding his character stalls and his attempts to be scary never get off the ground. It doesn't help that there's too much in-your-face wirework (why have two characters fight on the ground when they could fly up in the air and fight?) which looks clumsy and mishandled.

Anyway, I enjoyed the film's beginning. The coffin shenanigans are fun to watch and there are a few minor chills before Dracula emerges from his resting place. After that, it seems to fall apart a bit, and the ending is a let down. Christopher Plummer is well cast as Van Helsing, with a major twist to his character, but he's sorely underused and barely has any screen time. As for the supporting cast members: South African-born Justine Waddell is rather uninteresting as Mary (aka Mina),Dracula's main victim; Colleen Fitzpatrick's Lucy is a bimbo; Jonny Lee Miller is slightly embarrassed as the youthful male lead; Omar Epps makes for a fine, frightening and humorous vampire and Jeri Ryan steals the show as one of Dracula's sexy, seductive brides.

The action-based narrative moves along swiftly leaving little time for boredom and the vampire antics are mildly engaging, with lashings of bloodshed and flying severed heads to keep things moving, although the old Hollywood cliché of having partners pair off for extended battles at the climax – and the subsequent intercutting between said fights – is thoroughly irritating. Astonishingly, for such an under-the-radar movie that's been virtually forgotten about ten years after it came out – two sequels have followed to date.

Matthew Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer) is a collector and Simon Sheppard (Jonny Lee Miller) is his apprentice. His secretary Solina (Jennifer Esposito) is the inside man for a break-in led by her boyfriend Marcus (Omar Epps). They open a coffin and release Count Dracula (Gerard Butler). The thieves are turned into vampires. Van Helsing is actually the original who takes regular injections of Dracula's blood to stay alive. His estranged daughter Mary Heller was born after he started his injections and has a psychic connection with Dracula.

It's a complete mess. There are great actors but it's hard to say if anybody is the lead. It needs an overhaul to figure out who the audience is following and clear up the story. It probably has a few too many ideas and too many characters. It fails to build the rooting interest and therefore the scares don't hit as hard.