Dracula Untold

I love Dracula. I love the book, the classic Bela Lugosi movie, basically the whole mythology of vampires. I hate anything that messes with the classic mythology. (So pretty much Twilight, True Blood, and anything dealing with vampires that came out in the last ten years. [One exception is The Strain]) I don't mind origin stories as long as they're done right. So it's accurate to say I was excited about the possibilities of Dracula Untold but nervous about the execution of the story.


Vlad The Impaler never wanted to be known as such. But when forced into the Turkish army as a boy he quickly learned the importance of brutality. "People don't flee before a man, they flee before a monster." He says, justifying murdering and impaling a village so that other villages surrender without a fight. But now he just wants to settle down with his wife in son in Castle Dracula. To live out his life as a peaceful Transylvanian prince. Unfortunately, the Turkish Sultan is at war again... and demands 1,000 Transylvanian boys, including Vlads own son, to fuel his war machine. Vlad knows he can't take on the Turkish empire as a man...not even as the infamous Impaler, He must seek something more...something evil lurking in the dark caves on the neighboring mountains. He must seek to become a true Monster.

Dracula...Untold... Look at that title. Half good, half bad. Dracula...That's all you need. The menacing evil, the promise of a classic monster story. Untold...A cheap 21st Century update. The promise of something plastic pretending to be something epic. The whole movie is like that: Flashes of greatness overshadowed by permeating blandness. Frankenstein is sympathetic. The Wolfman is sympathetic. Dracula was never meant to be sympathetic. He is pure evil whose goal is to drink men and steal their souls for the Devil. This is Vlad the Impaler as a family man. Dracula who is heroic. Basically a fang-less vampire: It looks cool but doesn't have any bite. Too bad because there are moments that are awesome. CGI could lend itself well to Dracula. Vampire vision, Bat-transforming, and Impaling the Vampire looked amazing. But the great action/horror moments are not complimented by the tepid storytelling.  C+