Poor Brandon Routh. After snagging the iconic role as the Man of Steel, it's a little bit unfortunate that Bryan Singer's Superman Returns fell short of the studio's expectations, and he no longer plays a part in any future installments, starting with Zack Snyder's reboot. No matter, after all with that build and chiselled good looks, one can waltz into another superhero franchise, isn't it?

Unfortunately, Dylan Dog is an Americanized version of the Italian horror graphic novel character, and as far as adaptations of comics from another culture goes, this one hits the mark in expectations, where the source material got extremely dumbed down, its unique selling points dissolved into mediocrity and bastardized. Save for the trademarked coat and red shirt, director Kevin Munroe's vision of this character became somewhat of a generic monster hunter type of film, though a plus point would be its treatment and narrative style in full detective noir, with Routh's Dylan Dog being reluctantly pulled from retirement by his client Elizabeth (Anita Briem) to investigate the death of her father, as well as that of his assistant Marcus (Sam Huntington).

This investigative trip of course introduces the audience unfamiliar with the Dylan Dog mythos that the undead, from vampires to werewolves to zombies, all have hidden human identities and walk the Earth quite undetected, with a truce in place to keep the peace and Dylan being the only trusted human for the monsters to go to when someone crosses the line or breaks the peace. There's a little backstory here on Dylan's origins and the reasons behind his forced retirement, but nothing truly to wow or build upon any depth to the character, which is potential that's wasted in giving Dylan more meat in background, becoming instead just another human detective on his rounds.

The thrill factor of course is the make up and effects in having the monsters look their nasty part, although they aren't something that hasn't been seen before on screen. Action sequences are ho-hum, with the nagging feeling that the story by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer can't quite decide how to empower Dylan, making him become as powerful as Routh's previous comic book outing in at least the indestructibility factor, while equipped with some funky weapons that we should see more of. And the trailer while pretty tacky, actually summed up the entire plot, having reveal too much and letting out that the filmmakers aren't quite confident with their end product, and the marketers a little bit clueless on how to sell this film, hence its verbosity.

While Brandon Routh has a limited acting range, his physique actually suited him fine here and basically that was all that mattered, since you aren't going to remember much about his rather bland performance. Perhaps it's also because Sam Huntington, his co-star from Superman Returns as well as he played Jimmy Olsen then, scored much of the flak in this film being the very whiny assistant, whose wisecracks and constant shouting get onto your nerves, and you wonder when his character could shut up if at all for five minutes. The Marcus character doesn't exist in the books simply because of a potential copyright tussle if what was deemed as a Grucho Marx lookalike got interpreted, but this modern replacement was as unfunny as he was unnecessary in a lot of ways.

Don't expect this monster squad outing to be too cerebral. It's filled with corny one liners involving various body parts, and in essence is a poor man's cousin to Men in Black, replacing aliens in our midst with that of monsters roaming around. If only it had stuck more faithfully to its source, then it could have been something quite unique.

Maybe – most likely, even – I'm just a fatigue and endlessly grumbling horror fanatic, but personally I'm so sick and tired of allegedly cool & overly energetic comic book adaptations that put all sort of traditional horror themes together through a modern CGI-blender. The outcome of such a mix is hardly ever entertaining or originative, but more like boisterous, pretentious and derivative. For a very short while, I was actually very enthusiast to see "Dylan Dog", as I read that it was based on the work of the Italian comic book artist Tiziano Sclavi. This also just happens to be the inventor of "Dellamorte Dellamore"; one of the top five greatest zombie movies ever made and still one of the most shamefully underrated horror movies in the history of cinema. But then I realized again that comic book adaptations hardly ever make good films, and in most cases they barely reflect even a glimpse of the coolness of the original comic book. Sclavi's eccentric universe offers a whole lot of potential and terrific gimmicks, like first and foremost the New Orleans setting and the rather peculiar story aspect of monsters harmoniously existing together, and director Kevin Munroe ("TMNT") also tries hard to make his film accessible to all kinds of cinematic audiences, but the whole thing is just too damn derivative and reminiscent to other (also inferior) franchises like "Underworld", "Constantine", "Van Helsing", "Watchmen" and who knows what else. Brandon Routh, the new but unsuccessful Superman, depicts a different type of heroic character this time, as he's a supernatural detective and the human guardian of the peace-pact between the New Orleans' opposite monster clans. He's actually retired, as there haven't been any incidents for a while now, but the pact is rudely broken when a rich antique dealer is savagely killed by a lycanthrope of patriarch Gabriel's clan. The murder generates a bloody war with at stake an ancient religious relic holding the power to awaken an invincible demon named Belial. Along the process, Dylan's loyal assistant and comic relief character Marcus reluctantly transforms into a zombie and loses his limbs, and our private eye falls in love with the victim's daughter who clearly has a hidden agenda since the start. It's truly incomprehensible how a movie featuring so many versatile horror themes and monsters eventually results in such a dull and painfully clichéd wholesome. "Dylan Dog" doesn't feature a single highlight or memorable sequence and, on top of it all, director Munroe often reverts to rookie mistakes like the redundant narration and an overuse of comedy interludes at the expense of story coherence and/or atmosphere. The special and make-up effects, albeit plentiful, are too obviously computer engineered and hugely disrespectful towards admirers of old-fashioned horror lovers. I watched this film at the Brussels' Festival of Fantastic Films, during a midnight screening and in a theater chock-full of outrageous and hyperactive genre fanatics. The crowd's reactions were lukewarm and harsh. I guess that says enough about a film whose desperate aim is to be a crowd-pleaser

The movie starts out great. A young girl ( Anita Briem, "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" babe)is preparing supper for her and her dad. She is dancing in the kitchen, starting out with some good rock jams. She gets a clean plate out and sets it on the counter and then suddenly there is blood on the plate. It is dripping from the ceiling. She runs upstairs and her dad is dead. A werewolf jumps out the window...enter Dylan I. Dog (Brandon Routh),private investigator. He used to investigate weird undead things, a younger, hipper version of Kolchak, the Night Stalker. Dylan is old school. He uses snail mail. Deals with cash and checks, drives a VW Beetle (that backfires) and uses a film camera.

Dylan refuses the case until his friend Marcus (Sam Huntington) is killed. Now it has become personal. There are four werewolf clans. They operate in New Orleans like the mafia. The vampires are out to get Dylan and don't worry too much about Marcus, seems he was bitten by a zombie and becomes part of the "undead." There is a zombie support group for the recently undead. Seems all the can eat are worms, maggots and hot dogs. There is even a twist at the end.

The film has some flashbacks to a previous time/movie in order to catch the story up to date. For those who liked the old Night Stalker series, check this one out.