Dracula Untold Review

RYAN: This is a new origin story for the grandfather of all vampires. I come to this as an authentic Dracula fan.  I love the original Bela Lugosi.  I’m into Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  But I’m so disappointed in this, primarily because the production value is really low.  It looks more like a January release.  It feels like a cheap comic book adaptation.  It’s a missed opportunity.

AARON: It’s very stale on the whole.  The dialogue was very unrealistic and expository.  Clearly it was meant to create an archaic, dark mood but really only succeeded in being melodramatic and substance less.  The special effects were like watching a video game, especially on IMAX as we screened it.

RYAN: You’re right.  The opening sequence of the film was actually quite good – looking practically 3D without 3D glasses but from that scene on, all of the effects were some of the worst I’ve ever seen.  And this at a time when the bar has been raised so high where effects look so realistic.  This movie looks terrible.  It was a slap in the face.

AARON: In terms of character, it’s all the same old tropes over and over.  The same cliche things happen to move the plot into lame fight scenes that could have been lifted out of any generic movie.  They’re really just an excuse to watch men slay each other.

RYAN: Nothing cool.  Nothing original in terms of the fight scene choreography.  Much of the camera work looked lazy and out of focus.  The movie takes the biggest hit in the rating – PG-13.  Big mistake.  This is a Dracula vampire movie and you can’t really show blood in a PG-13 movie so it’s either not there or appears black in this film and it’s so wrong.  That’s the biggest detriment to the film.

AARON: I found it really disappointing.  Some die hard fans might find this more appealing than me.  But for a viewer walking in cold, it feels stilted.

RYAN: I always thought of the character of Dracula as a great romantic and he’s anything but in this film.  He cares for his wife, clearly, but no shred of romance to his character or this film at all.

AARON: He seemed to fit a typical archetype of a troubled man with a dark past.  He and his wife were so flat.

RYAN: Plus, after such lavish detail and design in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which won the Oscar for costume design, this movie is devoid of any style.  Nothing inspired.

AARON: Not only uninspired, but also not even close to being accurate.  Even their accents were not accurate.

RYAN: It’s not a saving grace but there’s one good scene in the movie – his origin scene where Vlad becomes a vampire.  That was good but not enough to make this movie worth anything.

AARON: Yes that one scene was compelling and philosophical but the rest was just bland.

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