Dracula Untold (2014)

Starring: Luke Evans and Charles Dance
Grade: C-

The potential was definitely there, and Luke Evans is a great choice for this action hero version of Dracula. Sadly, the rest of the movie contains too many misfires to match his energy.

Summary

In 1442, the Turkish sultan enslaved 1,000 Transylvanian boys for his army. One of these boys grew up to be one of the baddest dudes on the planet and Son of the Dragon, Vlad the Impaler (Evans). Sickened by his past, he went back to Transylvania to rule in peace. He would later be known as Dracula, as told to us by his son who does the narration in the intro scene.

With some of his followers with him, Vlad finds a Turkish helmet that was washed down stream and assumes more Turks are coming to wreak havoc. He sees that the stream starts from Broken Tooth Mountain. Seeing this as a potential act of war, he sends Dumitru (Diarmaid Murtagh) back to the castle to prepare their army, just in case. Next, Vlad has two soldiers come with him to investigate the mountain, as they are all ready for a fight with the Turks. Once they get up to the mountain, a bunch of bats fly out of the cave. Vlad correctly assumes that something has to be in there because clearly, the bats were disturbed. All three men pull out their swords and enter the cave. This is where they realize the floor is made up of crushed bone.

This is not the work of the Ottoman Empire. This is something only a monster would do, a vampire specifically.

The Master Vampire (Dance) attacks and kills the two men that were with Vlad, but Vlad is able to escape by scaring him off with sunlight flashing off of his silver sword. Back at Castle Dracula, Vlad talks with a monk. They discuss this similar dream many other monks in the kingdom have had over this monster he encountered, with this creature laying siege to the land. He shows Vlad this book detailing specifics on the vampire the Roman mystics prophesized about. Apparently, the vampire was originally some regular man who summoned a demon from hell to trade for his power. The demon gave him his power but condemned him to that cave where he has to stay, until he finds another to set him free. Disturbed and worried about the anxiety the people of Transylvania might have over this news, Vlad forces the monk to keep this secret to himself. Later, Vlad goes home to his family. After greeting everyone, his wife Mirena (Sarah Gadon) notices something was wrong with his latest trip because of Vlad’s demeanor. He doesn’t reveal what happened though, only changing the subject to talk about his son Îngeraș (Art Parkinson) and how he’s the same age as Vlad was when he was sent to fight with the Turks.

The next day on Easter, as Vlad’s kingdom toasts to peace during Vlad’s rule over Transylvania, Turkish soldier Hamza Bey (Ferdinand Kingsley) shows up with a bunch of other soldiers on behalf of Sultan Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper). Vlad is confused as to why Bey is here because he’s already prepared his tribute money to Mehmed, but Bey accuses Vlad of killing a battalion of scouts, though Vlad denies it. Bey accepts this but then says Mehmed has reinstituted the old policy of demanding another 1,000 Transylvanian boys to join the Janissary Corps. Before Bey leaves, he mentions that Vlad’s father gave him up when he was a child, implying Vlad will have to do the same for his child. They leave once Vlad almost fights one of the soldiers for trying to intimidate a father and son sitting at the big dinner table with the rest of Vlad’s kingdom. That night, Vlad tells Îngeraș he has nothing to worry about because there’s no way he’ll give him up to the sultan.

Since Mehmed II and Vlad used to be best friends back when they both served in the Janissary Corps together, Mirena convinces Vlad to go talk to him to see if he will show mercy. At Mehmed’s place, Vlad pleads with him for any other solution, but Mehmed demands his 1,000 boys and wants Îngeraș specifically, just to raise him as a son like Mehmed’s father did to Vlad back in the day. He argues that if Vlad is healthy, he should be able to make plenty more sons, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Later that day, Vlad is with his family on a dirt path, and Bey and a few soldiers are waiting for him to bring over his child. Once Mirena cries to Vlad to stop this somehow and Îngeraș walks with Vlad towards the soldiers, Vlad sends his son back to his mother, proceeding to kill Bey and all the soldiers with him. Knowing that he just started a war, and his country is in danger, Dumitru and another take Vlad’s family back to the castle. Vlad has to figure out a way to save everyone, so he goes back to Broken Tooth Mountain to speak to the Master Vampire. He sees Vlad isn’t scared and that he’s in need of help. Realizing Vlad may be the one who could help him escape his own curse, he pours his own blood into the top of a skull to drink out of. If Vlad drinks it, he will get the superhuman powers he needs to defeat the Turks. The catch is that he will crave the taste of human blood. However, if he can resist it for three days, he will return back to normal. On the other hand, if he does feed, the Master Vampire will be set free. As a result, Vlad will become a lifetime vampire and a new vessel for evil, destroying everything in his path.

In addition, the Master Vampire will look to get his revenge on the demon that screwed him in the first place, and he might call on Vlad for help.

There seems like a lot of risks, but Vlad knows this is the only solution to save his people and his family. He drinks the blood and officially starts his three-day countdown to hopefully end this war and get back to normal. Nevertheless, the Turks will make things very difficult for him.

My Thoughts:

In an attempt to create a cinematic universe much like how Marvel has done, Universal tried to do the same with all of the monster characters they own. Though 2017’s The Mummy was repositioned as the beginning of this universe, the first was technically Dracula Untold. Why they downplayed this fact I’m not entirely sure, but I guess it doesn’t matter because the failure of Tom Cruise’s Mummy movie stopped things from going any further. We should be thankful. It’s still way too soon for all of these remakes and adaptations of Universal’s classic monster movie characters because there’s not enough time taken in-between each adaptation. Just recently, I reviewed Victor Frankenstein and though it wasn’t a part of the “Dark Universe” we’re discussing here, it was yet another example of a film based on one of the core monsters coming way too soon after another adaptation in I, Frankenstein (ANOTHER different take on the source material that failed).

Another Dracula movie? You have to admit this was risky already.

Funnily enough, if things would’ve succeeded with this “Dark Universe”, we more than likely would’ve had ANOTHER Frankenstein movie too! It’s too much! These films, concepts, and classic characters need some time off.

Have you noticed how the film industry has given zombie-driven movies a break? This is what I’m saying.

Now, there’s a lot of Dracula movies, so it’s hard to say where this one ranks. This one is very different though. Dracula Untold appeals to mainstream audiences because it’s more of an action movie at heart, with the outer skin being that of a vampire movie. As an action film fan, there are a lot of parts I enjoyed. Luke Evans as Vlad the Impaler was very solid. He had the look down, was easy to get behind as a leader, and carried himself like a soldier worth 1,000 trainees, an argument he actually makes to the sultan. For the first time, Vlad the Impaler/Dracula was basically turned into an action hero, and I was here for it! His powers were cool too. Along with the regular vampire stuff you would expect, when he flies, a group of bats become a part of his body and fly with him in a striking manner. It’s very cool to watch. He can also control the bats. In one of the bigger battle scenes, Vlad possesses a bunch of the small animals and creates a giant fist in the sky made up of the creatures. Then, he slams this pseudo-fist onto the ground and wipes out maybe twenty thousand Turks, possibly more. These additional abilities to the character were very intriguing, and it added even more of a badass edge to the classic character. This new take on Dracula is one of the many positives about the movie. If they went through with the Dark Universe saga, this version of the famous vampire would have been interesting enough to be a major presence in future shared universe productions. I would have loved to watch him intimidate Tom Cruise’s Nick Morton from The Mummy in a face-to-face standoff in a future sequel. Evans was that cool in his role.

Unfortunately, the problem is that he was the only interesting character in this generically written screenplay. For instance, Vlad’s supposed best friend does nothing of note and is almost completely irrelevant to the story. They try to act like it’s a big deal when the dude is killed in a battle, but it’s hard not to feel indifferent. Why should I care about him? I didn’t label this line as a “spoiler” for a reason. You shouldn’t care that the guy dies because the writers didn’t either! Vlad’s wife nor child are given much to do at all, despite his kid being the main reason he decides to go through with getting vampiric powers. Evans does do a decent enough job at getting us through these scenes because of how much love he shows his family as Vlad, but he can only do so much. All the scenes revolving around his tight-knit group are surface level and too average for us to get emotionally invested. Look, I understand the story is geared around Vlad, but they have to have deeper conversations and characters than this, especially for such a major production with high hopes for the future. When you have stronger supporting characters, it can make your star look even better and make sense of his motivations and actions. Sadly, Luke Evans is forced to carry the brunt of the load. Though he does so admirably, it hinders the final product because we don’t care about anyone else.

Sultan Mehmed II was uninteresting as the villain too. He’s got the look down, but he’s so one-dimensionally evil that it feels as basic as can be. Why does he want Vlad’s son so badly to be his? Is it just because his own father helped raise Vlad? There’s got to be more to it than that, right? Is there some resentment? They were the best of friends when they were younger, so why does he want to ruin his life now? There are so many questions that go unanswered in favor of Vlad kicking ass. This is okay I suppose, but it only furthers the point that no one other than the main character is really worth a shit. Because of this, the final fight scene doesn’t have nearly as much suspense to it as it should. It’s too bad to because the scene was set up in a fairly cool way. In addition, Mehmed’s responses to what was going on came off as strange. At one point, he’s told that 1,000 soldiers were killed by Vlad and only Vlad. His immediate response to this outrageous fact was to send 100,000 troops instead. How is he not a little shocked? How does he not even bat an eye that ONE GUY managed to kill a thousand people by himself? Mind you, this is before he knows Vlad is a vampire. So, at this moment, he’s under the impression that one normal soldier just killed a thousand people! Is it too much to ask for the man to be a little shocked, or show some amazement as to how the hell a human being could pull off such an incredible feat? Why the hell is he so confident? Why is he so determined to kill Vlad this badly, knowing he just lost a thousand troops to a guy who just wants peace? Aren’t there much more pressing issues for the Ottoman Empire than one guy he has this unknown vendetta against?

Again, this just goes along with the aforementioned lack of information regarding what we actually know about Mehmed II because of the thinly-written script.

Furthering his ridiculousness, once Mehmed is told about how everyone is scared of Vlad, he makes a point to say that men cannot fear what they can’t see. Okay, this is a fair point, but this quote shouldn’t be taken literally, right? Well, arguing this, Mehmed II blindfolds his entire army and marches them into battle to face Vlad and all of Transylvania! This made zero sense no matter what way you slice it. It came off as downright comical. How the fuck do you come to a conclusion like this, as your way to fight a battle in the daylight against a vampire? You already have the advantage! A blindfold helps the soldiers in no way shape or form! Do we really think 100% of these soldiers are this afraid of Vlad that they would humbly accept wearing a blindfold to go into battle? If one guy bumps into another with a sword, half of these idiots would end up killing each other!

The Master Vampire, played by the creepy and old Charles Dance (who had a small role in Victor Frankenstein ironically), was the lone character other than Vlad that made me want to learn more. Sadly, following their initial conversation when Vlad gets his powers, nothing else is revealed about him. I wanted to know so much more about the vampire lore, the demon this guy is feuding with, and his plans for the future, but we’re only given a taste of his backstory, nothing more. Furthermore, they had this guy who knew Vlad was in the process of becoming a vampire, and he offered to be his servant. Why does he want this life? What is the benefit? The guy is even nice enough to save Vlad’s life at one point, but he gets nothing out of it. If I’m not mistaken, he doesn’t even get a “Thank you”! At the very least, wouldn’t it make sense if he followed Vlad into the modern age as his servant during the ending sequence (since he saved Vlad from certain death)? No, they just throw two of the only other intriguing characters to the wayside to focus on all the one-dimensional jerkoffs accompanying this meandering story.

When Vlad starts his journey once he drinks the blood from the skull, we see a quick montage of his life flashed onto the screen. This singular moment showed us how the movie could’ve been visually. Unfortunately, they only teased us a few times with these types of eye-catching bits, jumping back into darkly-lit action territory quickly thereafter. If they found a way to balance the two, they could have had an action film with some staying power. However, as I mentioned before, the rest of the disappointing characters and non-Dracula related moments bogs everything else down, making the action feel a bit empty and not as satisfying.

One thing Dracula Untold did right was our main character. Vlad Dracula is a badass. All the action involved with him is pretty damn good and the sequence where he killed a thousand people by his lonesome solidified this take on the iconic character as a worthy threat to watch, as well as Luke Evans as an action hero. When we see the ending of the movie and the things they tease for the future (that never happened unfortunately), it does kind of get you excited. After seeing everything Vlad went through, seeing him in a modern setting changed my outlook on the movie and got me excited for what was to come. Dracula Untold wasn’t the greatest Dracula movie by any means, but the direction and spin this story told made me interested in seeing what Vlad’s new goals were, how the Master Vampire would fit into the equation, and how these two were going to be involved with the characters of the Dark Universe.

Nevertheless, the issue that seemingly stopped this film from being more successful was that some of the better parts only teased us for what was to come because they expected this initial film to be a bigger success. It’s like they were saving the really good stuff and decided that what they had already was good enough for a franchise-starter. As you can see, they were very wrong. That’s alright though. As an origin story, it’s decent.

I probably would’ve enjoyed the character in a future sequel much more, especially with him interacting with modern characters and situations and such. Unfortunately, we’ll never know how it would’ve turned out.

Damn the missed opportunity that was the “Dark Universe”! It had potential.

Thanks Tom Cruise.