Review of Dracula Untold (2014) by Agarcia732 — 16 Oct 2014

I actually was always optimistic toward Dracula Untold. However, I had high expectations/hopes and they weren’t met. It seems to me like this "genre-mashup" had a hard time finding its voice: it's not a romance movie, it's not a horror movie, it's not a gory movie--it's more of a typical ancient war film with some romance, blood-sucking, and implied violence thrown in. If the movie were longer and had time to develop certain aspects of its atmosphere, then it probably would've been better. But the movie is too short and feels rushed. Dracula Untold starts out OK. But way too many plot-holes and inconsistencies make it a lot worse than it could’ve been.

In the beginning of the film, why didn’t Caligula (the so-called “master” vampire who gave Vlad his powers) kill Vlad when he first got the chance? Could a single silver sword truly hold back a vampire as supposedly strong as him? Did he sense that Vlad was a powerful warrior who he waited an “eternity” to find? Why did he want “a man of (his) strength to arrive”? When a group of Turks are sent to retrieve Vlad’s son, how come they make no mention of the 1,000 other boys they want as tribute to the Sultan (as soldiers for his army)? Since they asked Vlad for them first, why do they bring up his son first? How did ordinary bats manage to kill an entire battalion of soldiers? Sure, they were thrown and squished pretty badly (probably would’ve gotten injured), but how could ALL of them die? Did Dracula/Vlad empower the bats somehow? Why did the Turkish Sultan blindfold his soldiers? True, they cannot fear what they cannot see, but then how will they hold up against a sudden ambush and how will they fight? They should’ve at least taken off the blindfolds when they got close to Castle Dracula.

(%%SPOILER ALERT%% How did Vlad/Dracula’s wife, Mirena, survive a fall from a great height and then hit a rocky ground hard, long enough to tell him to suck her blood as a last dying request? At the end, with the final fight between the Turkish Sultan and Dracula, why didn’t Dracula teleport behind him earlier and kill him? Why didn’t he summon some bats? If, at the end of the film, Vlad/Dracula can manipulate the clouds, how come he didn’t “teleport” far away and THEN unleash the sun on the other vampires so he wouldn’t have to die, then be revived at the end of the movie? Why didn’t he use this to make his enemies unable to see well earlier? Also, why does Caligula say at the end of the movie “Let the games begin”? That particular statement doesn’t make sense. %%END OF MAJOR SPOILERS%%).

The film isn’t much like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but I don’t mind that at all. I like this new take on his character as an anti-hero who has been through much loss. Luke Evans does a good job as protagonist Vlad the Impaler. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters aren’t developed much. The fight scenes look good, and the CGI is nice—but how are the scenes supposed to be any fun, when Dracula is too over-powered? The Sultan’s soldiers are little more than sitting ducks; it’s so easy for Vlad/Dracula to defeat them. Untold doesn’t feel like it has much stakes or suspense, as is the issue with most prequels and some origin stories (but this time it’s mostly due to Dracula being too O.P). I feel like too much was edited out of Dracula Untold when they tried to condense the film into a 90-minute running time. The movie should’ve been longer, because there was a lot that could’ve been developed and expanded upon. Mostly, the movie has too many plot-holes and inconsistencies, a too-fast pace, inadequate and sub-par plot/narrative, and lack of character development. The film is cool and fun at times, but it could definitely have some improvement. There’s too much unused potential for this movie, because I feel it could’ve been really good. If they make a sequel, they should get a new director. I agree with Rotten Tomatoes’ consensus—Dracula Untold is “neither awful enough to suck nor sharp enough to bite”. P.S, this film is meant to be the beginning of a “shared-movie universe” (like the Disney Marvel movies) for Universal. The second movie in this universe will be a reboot of The Mummy, scheduled for 2016.

Score: 7.4.

I have reviewed 32 movies, including the 2014 films: The Maze Runner, The Expendables 3, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Giver, Sharknado 2, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Edge of Tomorrow, X-Men Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Blended, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Divergent, Transcendence, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Blended, The Lego Movie, and more. I also review TV shows, such as The Last Ship, Sleepy Hollow, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, The 100, I Wanna Marry Harry, Crisis, Gang Related, and more. I also have reviewed the mobile game Minecraft Pocket Edition.