Dracula Untold

Dammit! I was so excited for this movie. It had so much potential. Luckily while it wasn't great, it wasn't awful either.

Dracula Untold tells the story of Lord Vlad (Luke Evans), once known as Vlad the Impaler. He's now trying to live a peaceful life ruling over Transylvania with his wife Mirena (Sarah Gadon) and young son Ingeras (played by the forgotten Stark child Rickon. I can't remember his actual name). One day a Turkish Sulton named Mehmed (Dominic Cooper who I know can act but in this he's a pretty forgettable villain) arrives and demands a thousand boys for his army, including Vlad's son. Desperate to protect his family and kingdom, he goes to the Master Vampire (Charles Dance aka Tywin Lannister) who gives him all of his strength and abilities. With this he'll be able to single handily destroy the entire Turkish army. But he only has three days to do it. If he can resist human blood for those three days then he'll return to being human. If he can't, he'll remain a vampire forever. Think of it as a twisted, reverse Little Mermaid but with vampires.

Let me just start off by saying what I did like about the movie. Luke Evans... wow!! I can't imagine anyone else playing this role. He's just so charismatic and you can tell he really gave it his all. I completely bought him as this troubled man who has done some horrific things in the past but is trying to redeem himself and will do anything for his family.

If you're going into this expecting a horror movie then you might be a little disappointed. There are some horror elements sure, but I considered it more of a superhero origin story.

I also liked the look of the vampires. It's so nice to see the more traditional version of them again and not ones that sparkle. That's always a plus. But speaking of the visuals, while some moments looked good overall they were pretty terrible. I read somewhere that the movie's budget was $70 million. I don't know where the hell all that money went.

Certain scenes and dialog were so cringe worthy that at times I had to either look away from the screen or laugh out loud. Sometimes both. One scene in particular that stood out that was especially bad. All I'll say is it was almost exactly like a certain scene in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Believe me you'll know it when you see it.

I was thinking about taking off another point for the ending. I won't spoil it obviously but once that scene was over and the credits rolled I felt like shouting, "Oh fuck you!" But I'm feeling generous at the moment and I like Luke Evans so that's why I'm giving it as high of a rating as I am.

I know it seems like I'm knocking Dracula Untold a lot and that I didn't like it. I'm so conflicted about this movie. Parts of it I really enjoyed and others parts I thought were terrible. But not for one second do I regret seeing it. If you're into these types of movies check it out. I just wouldn't rush out to see it or anything.

My Rating: 6.5/10