Dracula Untold

 Dracula Untold

Starring Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Art Parkinson

Directed by Gary Shore 

Synopsis:
Vlad the Impaler (Luke Evans) is famously known for his murderous ways, impaling people on pikes and ruling the country.  Twenty years later, he has a wife (Sarah Gadon), young son (Art Parkinson), and his own nation to rule over, but he’s abandoned his bloodthirsty ways and has set to living in peace.

The Turks, led by Mehmed (Dominic Cooper), wishes to enslave all the young men of Vlad’s country and train them for war, which leads Vlad to a mysterious mountain where the monster vampire (Charles Dance) is cursed to live.  There, he offers Vlad the power to conquer his enemies, but if he drinks blood within three days, he will be forever cursed to be a vampire.  Vlad takes the offer and receives the powers of the vampire, and the power to combat the Turks, save his kingdom, and his family – as long as he resists the urge for blood.

Review:
“Dracula Untold” is billed as the “true story” behind Vlad the Impaler, later known as Dracula.  Of course, this is totally not true, not even in the slightest.  Still, it had a decent story, if not one that’s already been told countless times in better films.  See if you know this one:
“A king living in peace comes into conflict with a seemingly impossible foe, and with no chance of success he reaches out to unconventional means in order to attain victory,  but at a possibly unspeakable cost.”

Sounds familiar?  That’s pretty much the plot of this film as well.  Everyone does their job, especially Luke Evans as the conflicted and somewhat heroic Vlad, but it succumbs to the “been-there-done-that” feeling that you’ve seen something almost exactly like this so many times.  You already know the outcome, and how it will all end.

Still, the visuals were very impressive, and Evans gives another great performance.  However, neither of those are enough to make “Dracula Untold” rise out of the murky waters of mundane existence and make it a “must see” movie.  Moreso something to see on the weekend when you got absolutely nothing else to do.

Summary:
Sometimes the world doesn’t need another hero, sometimes what it needs is a monster.  Sometimes the world doesn’t need another cookie-cutter film like this, sometimes what it needs is for it to never exist.

My Rating: B