Synopsis: Mixing the history of Vlad the Impaler with the myth of Dracula, Vlad is forced to seek help from a dangerous and deadly beast that lives in the mountain to protect his people.
Stan's thoughts: You know ideas are running out when words like 'untold' start making it into titles and surely the current love of all things vampire will run out soon too? This is muscular and gothic in tone, think the Gary Oldman Dracula film crossed with something like 300.
Vlad (Luke Evans) is toned, we get to see how toned he is (shame that) and is a conflicted hero. He was a successful soldier with a lethal reputation in his youth but is now trying to live in peace. Of course his wife is beautiful (Sarah Gadon) and supports him emotionally - lots of floaty dresses that fall off one shoulder and breathy pouting at the camera, you know the sort of thing.
Dominic Cooper phones in his performance as the big bad Turk demanding a tribute of a 1,000 boys from Vlad (is this the only role he likes to play these days?). And Charles Dance is the oddly creepy Dracula, a little bit Guillermo del Toro Pan's Labyrinth in style initially but then he just reminded me of a very old Tywin Lannister.
This all sounds a bit dismissive. The truth is Dracula Untold is alright, mildly entertaining it ain't anything new really. Everything is just a little too cliched to get anything other than a mild investment in the characters or sense of jeopardy. It's Dracula with lots of CGi and big, big battles which might really appeal to some.
Ratings
- Stan’s 50%
- IMDB 64%
- Metascore 34%
- Rotten Tomatoes 32%
- RT Audience Rating* 65%
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* Based on number of people who rated the film 3.5/5 and higher
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