Prince Vlad does everything he can to repel the Ottoman Empire's attempts to use Romania as a foothold to conquer the rest of Europe. After learning that the evil Sultan Mehmed II wants to take his son to annex him to the Turkish army, Vlad climbs a mountain where a dark demon resides in the hope of making a pact with him until he can defeat the Turkish hordes. The demon welcomes his request, but this happens at the cost of his transformation into a creature of the night.
Once upon a time, Dracula was scary. This was the intention with which writer Bram Stoker created him in 1987, inspired by the ruthless figure of Vlad Tepes, and this is the reason why the most famous of all vampires has perhaps become the most representative creature of the multimedia horror pantheon. Tod Browning understood this well, who in 1931 entrusted the unsettling figure of Bela Lugosi with the task of bringing him to the cinema, as did Terence Fisher, who with "Dracula the Vampire" in 1958 perhaps created the best Dracula of all time thanks to the perfect casting of Christopher Lee in the role of the famous bloodsucker. We must not forget the excellent "Bram Stoker's Dracula" directed in 1992 by Francis Ford Coppola and starring a chameleonic Gary Oldman, who gave the noble vampire an unprecedented dignity of mainstream cinema... then the darkness.
Indeed, if we exclude the not very successful but still appreciable for originality reinterpretation made by Patrick Lussier with "Dracula's Legacy – The Charm of Evil" in 2000, the other films in which the Vampire Prince has been the protagonist have certainly not left their mark. We have all (fortunately) forgotten the negligible vampire seen in the blockbuster "Van Helsing," which seemed like a less kitsch version of Renato Zero, not to mention the anonymous Thomas Kretschmann protagonist of Dario Argento's terrible "Dracula 3D" or the indefensible Jonathan Rhys Meyers who portrayed the vampire in the NBC TV series. In short, so many versions of the same character that most of the time have left much to be desired.
"Dracula Untold," directed by debutant Gary Shore and starring Luke Evans, realistically, fits among the worst cinematic versions of a "certain weight" made about the character created by Bram Stoker.
Let's start with the premise that this Dracula has really nothing to do with the Dracula created by the Irish writer, rather the screenwriters Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless developed the idea of telling an unprecedented Dracula that started from the most human side of the character. For this reason, "Dracula Untold," which in the working title was called "Dracula: Year Zero," is the story of the genesis of the character, a sort of prequel to the story we already know, which starts from the man and not from the monster.
On paper, this intuition was excellent: to tell the historical aspect of Dracula, which Stoker himself drew from, and not the usual and trite story of the noble vampire who circles Harker, tries to seduce Mina, and is hunted by Van Helsing. Yet, despite the excellent premises, the team of "Dracula Untold" managed to do the worst possible.
First of all, this film betrays everyone: the novel, History (with the "S" capitalized), and previous vampiric filmography, transforming Dracula into a superhero like those that today are very successful at the box office. "Dracula Untold," in fact, could have been titled "Superman Untold" resulting more honest with the paying public because a Vampire like this, frankly, makes you smile and smells a lot like a joke.
Here Vlad III of Wallachia is a loyal and courageous sovereign, who loves his wife Mirena, dotes on his little son Ingeras, and does good for his people, trying to counter the Ottoman army led by the ruthless Sultan Mehmed II. When the villain, who is played by a ridiculous Dominic Cooper with eyeliner like Xerxes from "300," orders that Dracula's son must join the Turkish army, his father decides it is time to rebel against the invader and climbs a mountain where it is said a demon lives. The monster is really there, played by Charles Dance from "Last Action Hero" and "Game of Thrones," has the appearance of Death in "The Seventh Seal" and is actually a vampire, who in turn vampirizes Vlad. From this moment on, there is the iteration of the superhero who discovers his superpowers: hyper-developed hearing, fire vision, teleportation ability, super-strength, the inevitable "Kryptonite" (which here is silver, like for werewolves) and more. And all this happens just as it usually happens in Marvel films, or rather, as it happens in Spider-Man, in particular. And here come the braggadocio in a row that do not fit well with the image that all of us have of Dracula, which at a certain point also becomes epic fantasy, with battles like "The Lord of the Rings," which tell us how much screenwriters, producers, and director have made the wrong film.
All this goes to betray the literary character of which the film culpably appropriates, misinterprets, and poorly rewrites the vampiric iconography, which suffers another hard blow after the rape of Stephenie Meyer and her "Twilight," and tells a completely falsified historical scenario. In short, a disaster.
Moreover, "Dracula Untold," which cost a hundred dollars, takes advantage of many visual effects that unfortunately appear quite cheap, uses violence in a PG-13 way, and does not even stand out for the spectacularity of the action, of which it nevertheless forges on several occasions.
Luke Evans looks too much like a model for the role he is called to wear, Sarah Gadon, who plays his wife, is a whining doll whose fate we care little about, Dominic Cooper – as already said – makes you smile for the look and is rather irrelevant. It is difficult to find a positive aspect in "Dracula Untold!"
It seems that this film will be the first of the announced Monster Universe, that is, the relaunch of classic horror icons that Universal Pictures wants to undertake by looking at a multi-film project similar to the one developed by Marvel. At this point – also considering the open ending of "Dracula Untold" – we must expect one or more sequels and then a new Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and then a whole series of crossovers between this and that monster and then all the monsters together in the style of "The Avengers" and then... and then... enough, I would say!
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