What They Say:
Almost an entire century after the world’s first cinematic introduction to Dracula placed audiences under his haunting spell, the studio that pioneered the genre reawakens one of legend’s most captivating figures in an action-adventure that heralds a pulse-pounding rebirth of the age of monsters. Evans transforms from the cursed man history knows as Vlad the Impaler to an all-powerful creature of the night in Universal Pictures’ “Dracula Untold,” the origin story of the alluring immortal we have come to fear as the sun sets: Dracula.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the problems with reviewing a Dracula movie is that you have far too many other films to compare it to, other TV series to compare it to and a slew of novels, comics, games and other media. While there are those that stand out for some audiences, they come across as weak for others. There’s no singular “vision” of Dracula anymore, especially since they all largely work off of the same source material but change up things by the trappings and execution. Directed by Gary Shore, Dracula Untold, originally called Dracula Zero, is essentially the origin story and prequel to a larger story that wants to be told. They don’t’ get to that story here, but they move fast to get us to that point, making this more of an opening chapter in a way, though one that does tell its tale in a pretty solid way.
With Luke Evans as Vlad the Impaler, known for that skill due to his time serving under the Turks and killing thousands of innocents and not so innocent, he’s managed to leave that life behind and is back in his home of Transylvania, where he’s resided for many years now as he’s the Prince of the area under the Sultan of Turkey. He’s married a woman named Mirena and has a son, Ingeras. He’s got the respect of those under his charge and we see through early events that he is a capable tactician, a smart man and one that is in his own way trying to correct or make up for some of the mistakes and sins of his life. So when it seems like there may be more Turks coming through the lands, the hunt to keep them out is on. And that leads him to the dark cave where Caligula resides, having been cursed for centuries to remain there with his bloodlust, feeding off the stragglers that do manage to come by.
Things go as you’d expect there as Vlad is drawn in by what Caligula offers as eventually the Turks are going to come, people that he has a real history with at that, and the demands will destroy the kingdom in the end. The film does its best to paint Vlad as the tough but sensitive type as there’s a real play made at the kind of warrior the Sultan made him years ago, the reputation he has and skill in general. That’s nicely balanced with the simple romantic, fatherly and husbandly aspects of his life when it comes to dealing with Mirena and Ingeras. It’s not dealt with deeply though, partially because it has just a 90 minute run time. It’s not the 90’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula with all of its moodiness and atmosphere. It’s far more an action film than anything else, using the Dracula trappings. And that does work, for me at least, because the film keeps moving while taking the right moments to breathe and slow down enough to make the characters accessible in a simple way. Part of it is that the real focus is on Vlad himself, and obviously most people going in have a very basic understanding at the least of the character and are open to mild interpretation differences.
Visually, the film does a lot of nice things as it plays big with the abilities that he has. Seeing though Vlad’s eyes as he goes through the transition period really makes it clear the temptation that such power is, especially in a more natural world of six hundred years ago. The bigger parts of it with the bats being used, the transformations, the scale of the armies involved, all of it sets the right tone while also having that mostly superficial feeling to it. Which it feels like it should have, since he’s just lashing out at a largely faceless army in order to protect this kingdom. There are mildly personal moments that comes into it with the “villain” of the film, but that’s just the trappings to push Vlad further into what he has to do. There’s obviously a lot of CG here, little in the way of real practical effects that usually dominate these films, and since it’s going its own direction it works well.
And honestly, that’s what really sells it for me. Where it wants to go. The early encounter with Caligula, played by Charles Dance, speaks of the larger storyline that exists here. Curse for centuries to the fate he has, his goal is to find someone worthy of the darkness like Vlad so he can go on and seek his revenge against the demon that did this to him. It’s given a couple of nods during their talks and you can see it seeding that event itself. And that’s what the epilogue here is all about as well, giving us Vlad in the present, reconnecting with the Mina of the present day as well, and seeing Caligula manipulating things to his own end game. Legendary Pictures is looking to build an interconnected world with the Universal Classic Monsters library, the next being The Mummy, and if they pull it off with Caligula orchestrating events and bringing them together – Avengers style – for a big final battle where we get all the classics together, this could be some really fun stuff. Especially since the classic monster franchises haven’t worked for far too many years in a meaningful way. So I’m hopeful that this venture will bear some real fruit.
In Summary:
I certainly won’t go out of my way to see Dracula Untold is great. It’s a fast moving film hitting the right beats and notes to tell the story it wants to tell, but it glosses over some of the heart of it as it hopes that audiences read more into it than there is on the screen. It’s not that Mirena and Vlad have no chemistry – they do have it – it’s just that it’s not given the time to breathe as Vlad has three days to deal with the invaders before falling victim to the powers he has. The lightness of depth is the real problem here, but even that I can’t really give it all that much grief about. The feature clocks in at just over 90 minutes and it doesn’t have any real lulls where you start wondering when it’ll get going again. But it also doesn’t run so fast that you’re dizzied by it. It’s a solid action film that works well with a familiar property and has so much potential in front of it that I wish the other parts were already here to explore all of it more. I had a lot of fun with it overall and left feeling pretty positive about the whole experience.
Grade: B
Wait, this is a 10/10/2014 theater release. How is this “Streamed by: Crunchyroll”?