Sometimes, films are unjustly judged. Other times, popular opinion needs to be challenged. Either way, our review of Dracula Untold will almost certainly be Unpopularity Content.
There’s no denying that Dracula is one of the most iconic fictional monsters ever created. The fact that he’s based on a historical figure is widely known, although there’s something of a chasm between the myth of Dracula and the history of Vlad the Impaler. Dracula Untold attempts to bridge that gap, telling a story that follows Vlad as he becomes the legendary vampire in order to protect his homeland.
Luke Evans stars as Vlad, the Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania. As a ruler, he is loved and respected by his people, but when his tentative alliance with the Ottoman empire and its sultan, Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper), is shaken by demands for a tribute of children, Vlad fights back. Embracing the dark and mystical power promised by the cave-dwelling Master Vampire (Charles Dance), Vlad becomes the Dracula of legend in order to repel the Ottoman forces.
Combining fantasy with history is rarely simple, and Dracula Untold is no exception. Chronicling the supposed origin of movie monsters using historical fact is shaky territory, and Dracula Untold‘s approach to is embrace the fantastical and employ fact in only the loosest sense. On paper, there’s no reason this shouldn’t work, so why did the movie fail to impress critics upon release?
Dracula Untold’s Problematic Approach To Important Historical Context Is An Issue
It’s not entirely clear how seriously it takes itself as a movie, but Dracula Untold‘s general tone is dark and dull. Rather than bringing its 15th century setting to life in an engaging and exciting way, the film makes it feel like a generic medieval narrative with a heavy dose of fantasy thrown in. Obviously, it uses the general framework of the Dracula legend, but with one key change: Vlad is a hero, rather than a monster.
The horrific acts that earned Vlad his moniker are touched upon, but they’re explained to haunt him as necessary acts of war forced upon him by responsibility. In doing so, Dracula Untold‘s subtext makes Vlad a hero, which is an unorthodox approach to his story, to say the least. However, it’s actually in how careless the film is in this approach that its real problems lie. The depiction of the Romani people is decidedly problematic, and its whitewashing of the Ottoman forces (and of the Sultan Mehmed II) is impossible to overlook.
Dracula Untold Is Packed With CGI Action And Needless Fantastical Nonsense
The overall thrust of the movie is decidedly simple. Exposition followed by a key plot point followed by action, then rinse and repeat. There’s very little character development, it relies heavily on its fantastical elements to make sense of the admittedly well-conceived visual components. The film’s costume design and aesthetic concepts are perhaps its best assets, but they’re weighed down by the addition of various narrative elements transparently included to make Vlad seem as heroic as possible.
The character of the Master Vampire is a truly terrible innovation to Dracula’s story. The idea that Vlad reluctantly entered a covenant with an evil figure in order to save his people is bizarre, and it robs the film of what might otherwise have been an interesting moral dilemma that would have made Vlad a more complex figure. Instead, it’s a cut-and-dry tale of a good man forced to do bad things, and it feels all wrong for a movie about Dracula’s origins.
Is Dracula Untold a good movie? Absolutely not. It has a few noteworthy strengths, but ultimately, it’s forgettable drivel that fails to establish any of its characters as figures worth caring about. There’s no real excitement or entertainment to be had, but rather a dreary and conceptually-flawed attempt to further blur the line between history and legend.
Rating: 30%
Summary: Dracula Untold is the origin story that no one ever needed. Attempting to dispel the myth surrounding a mythic movie monster goes about as well as you might expect, falling flat in almost every way imaginable.
Highlight: On the rare occasion that practical effects or costumes can be spotted among a sea of CGI, they look great.