Movie Review with Jeff McCullough: Dracula Untold
By Jeff McCullough on October 16, 2014
Vlad the Impaler was by all accounts not a very nice guy, earning his title by, you guessed it, impaling and murdering thousands of people. His cruelty and atrocious acts have earned him a place of infamy in history, but Vlad is perhaps most famous as the basis of the infamous Count Dracula, a blood sucking vampire who kills without remorse in order to satisfy an insatiable thirst for human vital fluids. Portraying this creature as a hero is no easy task, with the blood guzzling rampant murder and such, but Dracula Untold almost pulls it off. A number of other issues creep their ugly heads in though and bring down what could have been an interesting origin for one of horrors most famous monsters.
In Untold Vlad , portrayed excellently by relative newcomer Luke Evans, is repeatedly portrayed as a man willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, making the hard choices when he has to. He kills thousands in order to save hundreds of thousands, and has no qualms against performing some truly vile acts to protect his family and his kingdom. However, he is not a monster, a being without remorse. Beloved by his wife, his son and the people he rules, Vlad has put his past behind him to attempt a life of peace. It’s only an invasion from Turkey that leads to Vlad, a desperate man, making the ultimate sacrifice. He gives up his own humanity to gain the powers of a vampire, becoming a ruler of darkness and son of the devil, Dracula.
The powers of darkness are seemingly limitless, shown in several scenes where Vlad takes on entire armies by himself---and wins. For such a strong guy, Dracula has the grace of a ballerina, leaping between enemies and taking them down with a single powerful blow, turning his body into a cloud of bats and massacring entire platoons in a single, massive sweep. Some clever editing keeps the action PG-13, but shots of men being thrown like rag dolls and shredded like wax paper sell Dracula as a real force of nature, capable of taking on thousands of men single-handedly and coming out on top. The action doesn’t let up until a thrilling one-on-one swordfight brings it all to a breathtaking climax. Some of the CGI is a bit shoddy for a film with this budget, especially with swarms of bats, but overall it’s an excellent blend of both supernatural and more standard warfare and a big highlight of the film.
The story behind the fighting is unfortunately doesn’t quite reach the same level. It’s not bad, but surprisingly generic and at times nothing short of dull. Old Dracs himself gets a decent amount of backstory, and while he isn’t the most original protagonist to grace the silver screen, he’s an easy enough guy to root for.
On the other hand his wife, child, friends, and really just about everyone else in the film, are forgettable set pieces. All of the awful things Vlad does, and the very reason he turns himself into Dracula, are for the sake of his family and his subjects. It’s a problem then that his wife’s only real defining traits are “nice” and “good looking.” When these people are in peril or even dying it’s hard to care too much about their fates since we never grew to know them.
The portrayal of vampirism in Untold is another highpoint, showing them as savage monsters rather than the seductive creatures displayed in shows like Tru Blood and Vampire Diaries. Vlad himself is a pretty attractive guy, but when he finally let’s go, and the monster comes out it’s a hideous sight indeed. The head vampire who turned him, played by Charles Dance of Game of Thrones fame, is a nasty looking creature, with pale lifeless skin hanging off his bones and nails like daggers. After having their reputation drug through the mud by Twilight and its contemporary’s, stories like this one and The Strain are helping to restore it. Vampires are vicious predators, more likely to murder than seduce you, and I’m happy that cinema’s beginning to remember this.
Supposedly, Dracula Untold is going to be the start of a new franchise, an Avengers of sorts starring Universal monsters, like Frankenstein and The Mummy. Whether these plans come to fruition remain to be seen, but there’s definitely potential in the idea, and if the world is more fleshed out, and the writing upped a bit it could be a real treat. As of now, though, there are enough scenes of vampire action and swarms of bloodthirsty bats that Untold doesn’t truly bite, but at the same time there’s not enough substance behind the action for it to really take flight.
If you can ignore the clichés and the watered down characterizations, Dracula Untold is a lot of fun with more than enough to mark its status as a worthy, if flawed, addition to vampire lore and a potentially strong beginning to a new series.
3 out of 5 Stars.
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