Dracula Untold
Director: Gary Shore
Cast Headliners:Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Charles Dance
Original Release Date: October 10th, 2014
There have been what, one million adaptations of the
Dracula and vampire tale? The Bram
Stoker character has nearly become public domain by this point, which is why
Dracula Untold only comes a couple years after Adam Sandler in Hotel
Transylvania. To create a new Dracula
film in 2014 with the hope of being unique is akin to making a Fu Manchu film
in hopes of being new. It can’t help but
feeling “overdone.”
This film hopes to remedy that by taking a look at the
real inspiration for the legendary vampire in Prince Vlad II “the Impaler” of Transylvania
(then Wallachia). The prince, played by
Luke Evans, has to contend with a Turkish army led by the powerful Sultan
Mehmet (Dominic Cooper), and so must turn to the dark vampiric powers offered
by the Master (Charles Dance). The “historical” premise and origin of this
famous character does make it stand but it’s almost certain they were not
entirely accurate.
What is here is a few good aspects. Evan’s Vlad also goes
by the name “Dracula” or son of the Dragon, and he very much embraces that in
his performance. He is one of the only interesting characters in the film and
brings a brooding ferocity to his role.
The plot concerning his transformation down the dark side of vamprisim
is quite cool and one can feel his emotion.
There is an overall dark atmosphere to the film accomplished through beautiful
misty landscape backgrounds and more bats than you can shake a Bruce Wayne
at. His interactions with Dance as the vampire who
infected them are also great, as Dance’s brief appearance makes him out to be a
great villain who is woefully underutilized.
What’s less interesting is the major plot concerning the
Turks. The Sultan has less depth than a cartoon character, and his soldiers don’t
seem to pose much of a threat at all besides their number. The film’s action scenes can be counted on one
hand and all consist of Dracula turning into a swarm of bats and destroying
every one nearly instantly . Pretty cool,
but when it’s literally the only appeal of the film it’s not the best argument to go see it.
The movie has flat characters and sparse action but is
saved by its characterization of Dracula
and some cool special effects. It’s not the worst movie ever and has some
moments of dumb fun when Dracula destroys armies. But it feels like it ends way
too sooner than its 2 hour run-time. Here’s hoping the sequel it’s hinting at
brings things to more interesting areas which it does hint it. Considering that it feels so much like the
video game Castlevania : Lords of Shadow 2 already, that should be a cool place indeed. …. 6.35 out of 10
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