Universal is one of those studios that refuses to give up on its old properties, specifically their monsters. They keep trying really hard to make the Universal Monsters relevant and popular but continue to fail with each passing film. The Mummy sequels, Wolfman and now Dracula Untold, you’d think they’d wise up and invest not in a first time feature director or amateur screenwriters, but someone with serious credibility and talent that could write and direct an interesting story full of historically accurate characters while blending in the mythology we know, are accustomed to, and occasionally love. While not much of a horror film, Dracula is a vampire which is horror oriented (a stretch, I know) and so today’s review for our 31 Days of Horror is Gary Shore’s new film, Dracula Untold.
Set in 15th Century Transylvania, the movie focuses on Vlad the Impaler (Luke Evans), a prince whose kingdom and family are being threatened by the powerful Turkish Empire. Rather than take the easy route and giving the Sultan what he wants, Vlad travels up a dark mountain and makes a deal with a vampire in order to gain the necessary powers to drive back and defeat the Turkish forces that seek to destroy him and his people. Vlad soon becomes a vampire but if he can avoid drinking blood for three days he will return to his normal form, should he give in to the thirst, he will be cursed for all eternity.
When I braced myself for Dracula Untold I expected to watch a complete pile of cinematic crap. I had incredibly low expectations and thought I’d be laughing most of the time. I’m happy to say that didn’t happen. The movie was much better than I expected it to be but it’s still not a good movie and certainly not worth the price of admission. It’s something best served for a rainy day at home when you’ve got nothing else to watch.
One of the few things I did like from the film were the action sequences. I thought the way Vlad transformed into bats and moved during combat was really cool. I also enjoyed the way he controlled the bats to fight against such a large army, but other than that, the film doesn’t do much to stimulate you. There are plenty of historical inaccuracies on the side of the mortal Vlad the Impaler and when he becomes a vampire there are just some terribly corny moments that make you want to cringe. The film is an origin story and does a decent job of driving home the point that he is sacrificing everything for his wife and child but I felt there could have been less cheesy ways to showcase his commitment to his family and even his people.
As a person I really like Luke Evans, but as an actor I can barely stand him. Every movie I’ve seen him, whether he be a good guy or bad guy, it feels like he’s playing the same character. He’s a one note actor and you can see it once again with this film. Sure, he has his moments, but the dramatic scenes aren’t his specialty and the interactions with his wife, Mirena (Sarah Gadon, who is even less convincing), are just painfully sappy to watch. I can’t blame the two of them, nor the rest of the cast, for everything, for they had to work with a director no one’s ever heard of and a pretty crappy script from a trio of men with not much else, if anything, to their names. The cast did nearly the best they could with what they had to work with, but even the pretty good effects couldn’t save this box office bomb in the making.
Overall, Dracula Untold sets up future Dracula films quite nicely, but what we had to go through in order to reach that set-up was a bland film full of weak dialogue, decent action scenes, and campy storytelling that’s certainly not worth the price of a movie theater admission, especially not in NY.
Rating: Another monster bomb for Universal that’s better than you’d expect but still worth your time (3/10)
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