For the last while now, we’ve been drowning in a sea of vampire movies. Arguably one of the greatest cinematic monsters of all time, the whole Dracula thing has been done to death. However, it’s mildly refreshing to get an origin story, which sees Luke Evans assume the role of Vlad the Impaler.
Vlad, after spending his childhood being trained as a great warrior by the local Sultan, is all grown up now and has returned to his people. When the new Sultan (Dominic Cooper) decides he wants 1000 Transylvanian kids as conscripts for his army, including Vlad’s own son, things take a turn for the worse for the local Transylvanians. Out numbered, out speared and out sworded, Vlad strikes a deal with a Vampire (Charles Dance), after stumbling upon him in a cave previously. Drinking a skull cup of his vampire blood, Vlad finds himself bestowed with super strength and all kinds of powers including the ability to turn into a gigantic colony of bats. Sounds like a good deal, and if Vlad can withstand his appetite for human blood for 3 days, then he returns to his “normal” mortal self. Otherwise, he’s going to be spending a life time chowing down on necks.
And while we’re not in the habit of dropping spoilers here, it’s quite obvious what happens at the end. Thankfully though, what goes before the finale is of decent enough fare. Visually, Dracula Untold is spectacular, with Framestore (who did the phenomenal visual effects on Gravity) doing staggeringly good work converting Northern Ireland to Transylvania not to mention create 3 million digital bats. It’s these 3 million bats that provide some really exciting moments as they rip through battlefields and bodies with nothing but intensity and ferocity. There is a genuinely great attention to detail here from the sets which look incredibly authentic to the costume design. Vlad’s dragon suit in particular will inspire you to get out that dodgy rubber suit that’s locked away in the attic. The set pieces, which include a number of large battles are big, epic and will certainly keep the action fans happy as the body count rises. Director Gary Shore implements some nice touches including a great shot of the battle field, reflected in the blade of a sword, and even some of the first person views, while cheesy are good fun.
There’s a distinct feeling that there is alot more to this movie than has been released. How much has ended up on the cutting room floor we’ll never know, but some of the characters, including Vlad feel underdeveloped in places. So much so that you are actually yearning to find out a little bit more about them. An extra 10 or so minutes wouldn’t have hurt the 93 minute running time. That gripe aside though, Luke Evans is on decent form here and has an immeasurable screen presence before having his pint of blood. Equipped with some super powers he takes his character up a notch or two on the the intensity level and is very watchable. Sarah Gadon’s character of Mirena also suffers slightly from being a bit under developed. You genuinely want to see more of her, but what you do get is very watchable. Game Of Thrones fans will be ecstatic to see Charles Dance staggering around a cave, and while he is very vamperial, one can’t help but feel that he is channelling a constipated Tywin Lannister.
Overall Dracula Untold is a great first feature debut for Gary Shore. The movie itself, suffers slightly from some character underdevelopments (which I speculate are unjustly on the cutting room floor) but is rock solid piece of entertainment. And with an ending that leaves it wide open for a sequel, it does a great job of leaving audiences wanting more! This has got plenty of bite and is a big. fun popcorn flick that is well worth checking out!
