Review of Dracula Untold (2014) by Earl C — 05 Jul 2017

After months of previewing the impressive trailer for Dracula Untold, I finally got the opportunity to see it.

(you know it's hard to resist my vampire movies) .. of course this is was another which I was worried if the trailer would end up being the better than the movie itself. But after seeing Dracula Untold, I'm glad I didn't have to worry about that at all.

The film opens up to a narrative introduction to Vlad the Impaler, ( this is his origin before he became the dark king known as Dracula) who was taken away when he was young, to be trained as a heartless soldier with no morals.

He escapes and becomes a prince to his very own kingdom and homeland. But the Turkish Empire shows up, and demanding Vlad to give them 1,000 boys to be trained for their very army.

Vlad refuses and rebels, causing the Turkish Empire to declare war upon Vlad - who ironically once explored, stumbled upon and survived.

An attack by a powerful dark force in the mountain layers, decides to return to the mysterious mountain that lays a master vampire.

Vlad begs the master vampire to give him the power and strength in order for him to fight against the Turkish Empire and manages to strike a deal with him in return for that power.

The first half of the film seems a bit methodical during his gradual transformation into the prince of darkness, but it's clear that it is aimed to display and develop Vlad's relationship to his family,- his beloved wife Mirena (Sarah Gadon) and his son Ingrid (Art Parkison).

And his people, as well as building up the enemy in the face of the ruthless and cunning Turk king (Dominic Cooper) and his great army.

But I can admire how the story tries to portray and reveal the character as a hero and savior more than the legendary evil force.

The first half also aims to display how Vlad, upon the conditions of his dark deal (and curse) has to somehow resist the.

Overwhelming urge of thirst for human blood for a particular period of time. Thus he is now burdened with two enormous challenges.

But Vlad does learn the limits of both his strength of his powers as well as the crippling weaknesses he has to endure.

This is where I got to enjoy the terrific CGI graphic visuals effects and the fighting action sequences.- it was a first that I saw Dracula.

Travel and speed through the air in a cloud of bats, disappear and reappear in various places in a blink, display enormous strength,.

Regenerate quickly from stabbing wounds and fire, turn humans into fellow vampires, command an army swarm of vampire bats, and defeat large armies with an incredible ease.

This actually spoiled me such that I actually was craving for more - as I would have like to seen even more of a full display of the powers of Dracula.

( ability to shape shift or control various creatures- such as wolves, rats, limited power to cause storms and fog,).

One element I found interesting that the director change course of was Dracula's own vampires turning against him at one point when.

It was always documented that he controls all vampires that he created in the first place.

A good number of the camera fights are dark and fast-cut. and based upon it's surprising PG-13 rating its actually not that blood gory.

As much as I enjoyed it, there were just a few flaws I did have with this film - for one, it's predictable ,if you see the trailer, then you pretty much.

Know the tell-it-all plot and how the whole film is going to go down.

And I would prefer the story just go ahead and portray the creature in the mountain layers as "Satan" himself rather than a master vampire,.

To which this mountain master would have to be even more powerful than the actual Count Dracula Lord of the Vampires himself.

Also, I thought one scene was ridiculously silly as we see one lone monk square off against a huge horde of destructive vampires with only a small crucifix at his disposal.

I had wonder how this Dracula film would compare to other Dracula films in the past and vary away from the usual Van Helsing/Dracula -like origins.

This one tells of Dracula before he became the dark prince of evil. But in a different manner,.

Of course it's not on a level of say Francis Ford Coppela's 1992 Dracula (that featured Gary Oldham, Keanu Reeves, Winona Rider and Anthony Hopkins) But it was very entertaining in its own right, IMO - especially the 2nd half of the film.

To this day I still cannot understand the reviews of the critics that put down this film as such. I was very well entertained and satisfied with Dracula Untold- and I think most viewers will be as well.

On a scale of 1 to 10, .. I'd give Dracula Untold a 7.0.