Dracula Untold, 2014
Directed by Gary Shore.
Starring Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Charles Dance and Art Parkinson.
SYNOPSIS:
Facing threats to his kingdom and his family, Vlad Tepes makes a deal with dangerous supernatural forces – whilst trying to avoid succumbing to the darkness himself.
Remember that time Dracula made a devilish deal with a higher power in order to protect his army, his kingdom and, most importantly, his family from being sold into slavery? No? That’s because Dracula Untold is a story that should have stayed as so. It doesn’t matter if the rumors of Universal wanting a cinematic universe based on their mythological horror monsters is true or not, this movie killed whatever chance that had of happening.
Dracula Untold in a nutshell is another cliché filled Hollywood blockbuster that has no originality or creativity, it’s just full of studio yes-men checking boxes on a list of things a modern vampire movie apparently need. You have the unbelievably handsome Vlad the Impaler (aka the man who becomes Dracula) prepared to do anything to protect those he cares about, horribly written romantic vampire nonsense, terribly choreographed action scenes full of extreme close-ups to hide enough blood and violence to keep the film from receiving a classification of R, and so many plot-holes that all of the above have their stupidity multiplied by ten.
By far the biggest problem with Dracula Untold however is that the movie forgets our central character is supposed to be on the path of becoming Dracula; a bloodsucking creature burdened with moral dilemmas. Vlad is tempted to drink the blood of those around him, but is also given three days to resist, in which case he will be returned to a normal human being. And naturally, because this is a film designed to attract mainstream audiences, we have to watch yet another goody two-shoes depiction of vampires that can do no wrong and are all about love. Dracula is supposed to be a flawed character, but in this movie he’s no more different then Superman. He doesn’t succumb to the weaknesses of his transformation, his abilities render him a killing machine, and he is generally unstoppable. His only true setback is his inept army, which resemble the Oakland Raiders compared to the enemy threat, who are as skilled as the San Diego Chargers. That still isn’t a defect on Vlad/Dracula though, but rather a plot device to give him more people to save.
It also gets very old very fast watching Dracula dispose of his enemies by morphing into a swarm of bats to trample straight through their formation lines. If Dracula Untold were a video game that would probably be a cool game mechanic to poke around with over and over again, but this is a movie, and repetitive battle sequences are one of the most criminal sins an action film can commit. At times it feels like the writers didn’t even try to brainstorm innovative fight scenes, and instead just said “We need an even bigger army for Dracula to destroy as bats! That’s what people want to see, more generic dudes get annihilated ”
Unfortunately, when the film opts for sword-to-sword combat things aren’t that much better, as the scenes are shot far too claustrophobic and with a camera that pans all over the place. Once again, it’s obviously done to keep the rating at PG-13, but when you are showing viewers a skilled warrior cutting down a myriad of foes at once from the reflection of his silver blade, effectively obstructing everyone from being able to tell what the hell is going on, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
But wait! Dracula Untold actually does abandon its cliché roots for a series of ending events that are at least different from what most will expect. The only issue here is that nothing makes sense, and just makes the whole movie come across as a waste of 92 minutes. I can’t believe I am saying this, but the last 15 minutes should have just went the most predictable route possible, because it would have at least followed some logic.
The only aspects of Dracula Untold deserving of praise are the acting – most notably Luke Evans who does everything he can to sell this garbage script, and Charles Dance as a mysterious master vampire that gifts Vlad his abilities – and the Transylvanian visual aesthetics of the production sets. At times it looks like the filmmakers of Dracula Untold waited for the cast and crew of Game Of Thrones to go on lunch break so they could rush in. slightly alter it, and shoot their crappy movie. The special effects regarding Dracula are also decent, although every once in a while the filmmakers decide to put the movie in slow motion for emphasis on sunlight or silver burning Vlad, but it comes across unintentionally hilarious and nowhere near as well-produced an effect like that needs to be executed.
If you want to see Dracula Untold, I implore you to just go watch the trailer; it’s 1,000 times better than the actual movie and did a pretty good job of creating excitement. Unfortunately, the result is another film to file under the folder of “Awesome trailer, s*** movie”. The only positive thing that came out of watching Dracula Untold was getting a great batch of trailers that included Interstellar, Jupiter Ascending, and The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies. Hopefully those trailers actually result in entertaining movies.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder – An aficionado of film, wrestling, and gaming. I currently write for Flickering Myth, We Got This Covered, and Wrestle Enigma. Follow me on Twitter.
