Dracula Untold (2014)

I went into this film with low expectations, and I had a pleasant surprise! Dracula Untold tells the story of Vlad the Impaler (Luke Evans) and how he goes from being the son of the dragon, to the son of the devil – the infamous Dracula. The gothic tale takes place as Vlad is living peacefully with his family ruling over his kingdom in Transylvania after his impaling days are over. But this peace is soon broken, as Vlad and his people still owe the Turkish Empire when their leader and Vlad’s brother; Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) demand 1000 of their well bodied boys to work for them in child slavery. With no army to defend themselves, Vlad seeks for the only thing he can do to protect his own people, by becoming the very thing that the Turks fear, Dracula. Vlad seeks out one of the legendary vampires that are spoke of in mythology as a great evil and finds the master vampire (Charles Dance) who makes him a deal; that he will turn Vlad into a vampire and he will gain all the powers of a vampire to aid him in the war and if he can resist the thirst for human blood for 3 days, then he shall return to a mortal man, if not, then he will remain that way for an eternity and will take the place of the Master Vampire. When I initially saw trailers for this film, I wasn’t very impressed because I don’t like the idea of a Dracula prequel as Bram Stoker never wrote anything about Dracula’s past, so the entire premises of this film is totally made up, loosely based around the original story. However, after seeing it, I can tell the film makers have made an effort to make a prequel which at least tried to live up to the classic tale and they managed to do a quite good job of it. Starting off with the pros; the acting in this film is great, especially from Charles Dance who played the villainous role excellently and proved even more why he needs to be the next master in Doctor Who and I honestly think that he needed more screen time. Luke Evans also did a brilliant job of his role and you can clearly tell from his performance, the contrast of his character before and after he becomes a vampire, before he is a very loving family man much like his character Bard from the Hobbit, but after he is a ruthless slaughtering animal who is even a danger to his own family. Evans also perfectly showed the parallels between a monster in the literal sense as he is a vampire, and in the metaphorical sense as he must make monstrous decisions in order to protect his people. The cinematography in this film was also amazing with very well shot action sequences and symbolic images on screen, this complemented nicely with the very impressive visual effects which made things such as Dracula’s skin burning in the sunlight and the transformation from Vlad to Dracula all the more realistic and more effective in the way of horror and gore. The cinematographic shots not only depicted the horror of Dracula but also the horrors of war and these two dynamics complemented each other nicely. However, there are some cons to this film; the most notable negative aspect is the title “Dracula” this I didn’t agree with, as after seeing the film, I felt it would be better suited for an independent vampire film like “An Interview with a Vampire” and it does work really well from that perspective. But it is in fact as the title suggests, a Dracula film which I felt didn’t work well in terms of the contrast in the portrayals of Dracula in this film and that of the classics, as I felt that Luke Evans portrayal as Vlad was a completely different character to say that of Christopher Lee’s Dracula. This is why I feel that this film should be an independent vampire film rather than hanging on to loose threads of the Dracula story as it would be a good vampire film rather than a mediocre Dracula film. The structure aswell was also quite messy and uneven as there were too small gaps in-between action sequences and the whole build up to Vlad becoming Dracula was too rushed and it should made that scene longer by emphasising more on the decision that Vlad had to make and of the Master vampire – what Vlad could become. There were also other aspects that were un- Dracula – ist, such as his new powers and taking his already existing powers to the greatest extent which although was interesting at first was just too bold and dynamic for the Dracula that we know – a sneaky, quiet monster, not a war mongerer. Overall, I feel that this film is enjoyable, with great acting, cinematography and an entertaining plot and action sequences but would have been better as an independent vampire film, 3.5/5 stars.