THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Some stories are not meant to be told and I stand by this case when watching Dracula Untold.
PLOT
The 2014 film follows a new origin of the iconic vampire who was once a prince in the 15th century, known at the time as Vlad the Impaler. As a child, he became a royal ward in the Ottoman Empire, trained to be an elite soldier of Janissary corps. He began ruling in peace after being sickened of his actions as a warrior, living with his wife Mirena and son Ingeras as a prince to Wallachia & Transylvania. One day, he and his soldiers discover a helmet in a stream, fearing that an Ottoman party is prepping for an invasion. They follow the stream that takes them to Broken Tooth Mountain, where its cave is carpeted in crushed bones. And within is a creature who attacks retinue. Back at the castle, a local monk named Lucian (Paul Kaye) provides research to Vlad to confirm it was the actions of a vampire that originated from the Roman Legions as Caligula, infamously tricked by a demon for power only to trapped in the cave as a price. On the celebration of Easter, an ottoman contingent arrives and demands young Janissary tributes to be sent to Sultan Mehmed II. Vlad refuses especially when Ingeras is demanded to be included. Feeling out of options, he returns to Broken Tooth Mountain and seeks power from Caligula. He offers him to drink his blood which he will be the powers of a vampire for three days. If he doesn’t drink human blood for 3 days, he’ll return human but if he does, he’ll be a vampire forever. Vlad takes the deal and gains supernatural abilities, such as transforming into a cloud of bats and having enhanced strength but suffers severe burns when exposed to sunlight and silver. When returning to the castle, he protects the castle with his powers against invading Ottoman. As he sends his people to a monastery for safety, Mirena learns of his curse and respects what he had to do to protect their son. At the monastery, a gypsy named Shkelgim (Zach McGowan) offers Vlad his blood once knowing his secret but he resists. Lucian also learns of his curse and considers having the town out of fear to turn on him, but the probationary vampire clarifies he became so for them. Later on, a second wave of ottoman follow, causing him to continue defending his people with his human army. Despite having a repel, he gets overwhelmed when another wave sneaks into the monastery to abduct Ingeras. Mirena tries to defend her son, but she falls to her death and Vlad is unable to get to her in time. Needing to be stronger, he takes her blood at her request to get their son back. This officiates him into being a full blooded vampire that also frees Caligula from the magical seal that’s imprisoned him for so long. At the monastery, he turns casualties into a vampire army to attack Mehmed’s army upon Christian Europe, hiding behind a lightning storm to wipe out the opposing army. Fighting the Sultan himself is not an easy feat for Vlad due to his enemy using silver as an advantage. He achieves victory by evading his blows when turning into his bat cloud, and stabs him with a wooden stake before drinking his blood. Despite such a personal victory being achieved, his fellow vampires have quickly lost their humanity and seek the blood of his son. Luckily, Lucian shows up to protect the boy with his cross. Once Vlad says goodbye, he uses his powers to dispel the storm that wipes out the other vampires, but intentionally sacrifices himself. Although Ingeras would go on to be Prince of Wallachia, his father would survive this sacrifice thanks to Shkelgim who drags him back to the shadows and gives him his blood. The film ends in a time jump forwarding to the 21st century, where Dracula meets a woman in London named Mina, who resembles his long lost wife. Little does he know Caligula is watching from afar.
THOUGHTS
You know since Count Dracula has been looked at as the icon of vampire lore, as well as the catalog of Universal Monsters, it is to the point where he is most recognized of all horror villains. Knowing this, it makes sense with each adaptation to make him a franchise itself to see what stinks. When Hollywood chose to bank on this motive, you can tell which had the most passion and/or lacked it overall. This is a case where it is one in the middle because director Gary Shore had all the pressure to give some kind of rejuvenation with this new narrative while giving an atmosphere to make him recurring much like how Hammer Film Productions did so as long as they did. Of course there is no doubt that the production/costume design is quite effective to feel like we're taking a trip to the past. And the visual effects to create how grand the atmosphere is supposed to be, as well as the bat clouds, hits so well. I think the big takeaway though is how we're being approached on how Dracula was given an arc where he had to play fire with fire for the greater good. Luke Evans does a great job in showing the character desperate in finding remorse until he can't do so anymore, but it just doesn't sound like him at all. The dynamic between him and Charles Dance's Caligula sounds compelling only for it to be shelved for the main story against the Ottoman empire to go on. I mean the former sounds way better than what we got because it's formulaic of an action film to follow. And it's even one sided where we got to root for Drake since Dominic Cooper shows Mehmed to be ruthless from the start in wanting to make a new generation of an army through children, a tradition that should've never existed. Another strength I enjoyed was the other dynamic Evans gets to have with Sarah Gadon as Minera because she is a supportive wife who genuinely loves her husband for having the most morality compared to other leaders she's seen before. This is where the sympathy kicks in, but it then feels forced by the end of it when Drake sees Mina, who is also played by Gadon. I know it's a big element from the original novel, but it didn't need to be there and Caligula watching over him also forces a sequel that thankfully never happened because I don't think they would've handled an appropriate direction either. The only one that's a bigger victim is Ingeras because Art Parkinson is shown to be under the loop and can't properly fathom what his dad went through for him, hence living on in his honor. I mean I'd rather see a movie about him being a ruler while his dad watches him from afar, rather than the idea of Caligula doing so. I really want to appreciate all the things this movie goes for, but that's only the beginning of problems that bothered me deeply because there were a handful of things that didn't make sense to me. For instance, how was Dracula not told sooner of Ottoman coming during easter? I mean since it's clear from the start they're enemies, Wallachia should be on top of themselves in alerting their leader as soon as they could. That's dumber than Mehmed's army not having arrows on him before his transformation, to seal the deal they wanted his son to be part of the new army. I also wonder why didn't Dracula bother trying animal blood? I don't want to support too much of what Twilight did, but there has to be some sort of cheat code if you were to eat animals in the period this movie is set in. And lastly, I thought it was dumb for his vampire army to provoke his son. I know they're hungry, but they should've restrained themselves for the sake of the guy that chose to gave them a second chance at life. Knowing these issues, it can be hard to enjoy it overall. To wrap up, Dracula Untold is a messy adaptation of the iconic character and thankfully did not enhance the Dark Universe the way Universal was planning. If you like vampires, good luck with this.
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