DRACULA UNTOLD (2014) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

dracula untold (2014) movie

Genre              |   Horror Thriller

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   92 minutes

Released         |   10 October 2014

cast

Luke Evans ... Vlad
Sarah Gadon ... Mirena
Dominic Cooper ... Mehmed
Art Parkinson ... Ingeras
Charles Dance ... Master Vampire
Diarmaid Murtagh ... Dumitru
Paul Kaye ... Brother Lucian

director

​Gary Shore

writer

​Matt Sazama ... (screenplay) &
Burk Sharpless ... (screenplay)
 
Bram Stoker ... (characters)

cinematographer

​John Schwartzman ... director of photography

music

​Ramin Djawadi

film editor

​Richard Pearson

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box office result

Worldwide               $217,124,280

Australia                 $​​​4,963,946

North America        $​​56,280,355

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movie minutiae

This movie was in production before Universal decided to build a cinematic universe. The producers caught wind of it just in time to independently add a present-day epilogue that Universal could use if they wanted to, but it was ultimately decided that DRACULA UNTOLD (2014) would not be the first entry in the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe.

This is the second time Charles Dance played a vampire. The first time was in UDERWORLD: AWAKENING (2012)

​Real life Vlad Tepes was a prince of Wallachia (Tara Romaneasca). He reigned for two months as a puppet of the Turks in 1448, then for six years from 1456 to 1462, then one last time in 1476 when he was killed after two months.

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DRACULA UNTOLD (2014) STORY SYNOPSIS

Witness the origin story of one of legend's most captivating figures in the action-adventure, DRACULA UNTOLD....

The year is 1462 and Transylvania has enjoyed a prolonged period of peace under the just and fair rule of the battle-weary Vlad III, the prince of Wallachia (Luke Evans, FAST & FURIOUS 6, THE HOBBIT series). But when Sultan Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper, Captain America: The First Avenger) demands 1,000 of Wallachia's boys -- including Vlad's own son -- become child soldiers in his army, Vlad must enter into a Faustian bargain to save his family and his people. He gains the strength of 100 men, the speed of a falling star, and the power to crush his enemies. In exchange, he's inflicted with an insatiable thirst for human blood that could force him into a life of darkness and destroy all that he holds dear. 

DRACULA UNTOLD (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 9 October 2014

​Pop ​Movee Rating

DRACULA UNTOLD is a stylish, straight forward action melodrama. Its story uses Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire tale as its source, but the film serves as a prologue to the novel; delving into the life of Vlad Dracula before his transformation into the feared creature of the night.

Luke Evans is Vlad, Prince of the Eastern European state of Transylvania, a man who was conscripted by the Turkish Ottoman Empire as a young boy and became the most ferocious warrior in all of Europe and the Middle East.

Having served the Turks, he has returned to his kingdom, married and started a family. Vlad is forced to take extreme action when the Turks return to his kingdom and demand a thousand young men for their armies and demand that Vlad’s son Ingeras, played by Art Parkinson, become a royal hostage in the court of the Turk’s Sultan Mehmed, played by Dominic Cooper.

Vlad finds his answer in the dangerous caves of Broken Tooth Mountain where he comes into contact with a supernatural creature, the Master Vampire played by Charles Dance. The Master Vampire strikes a deal with Vlad. He can have the power of a vampire for three days to defeat Mehmed’s army. If he can resist the temptation of human blood, he will return to being a mere mortal. If not, he will be transformed for eternity.

Luke Evans as Vlad is the key to the success of this film and, at times, he comes up short in his emotional range. He is very good in the film’s action sequences, but is never quite convincing in his role as a father. There’s a genuine desire to bring the Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless screenplay to life, but Evans and Art Parkinson don’t quite nail the father-son relationship.

Sarah Gadon, as Vlad’s wife Mirena, fares a little better as her part in the story becomes the catalyst for Vlad to forsake everything in his effort to salvage his family and his kingdom.

Dominic Cooper, however, comes up very, very short and is miscast in the role of Mehmed. For a character that is supposed to be a feared Turkish Sultan, Cooper struggles to bring any menace or sense of intimidation to the role. His fights with Vlad are an anti-climax, as he spouts off more like a James Bond super-villain than the conqueror of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The most praise is reserved for Charles Dance, as the Master Vampire, who brings his theatrical flourish in a scenery-chomping role that adds a new dimension to broader vampire mythology. It’s of interest that Dance’s role as the Master Vampire was referenced various materials for the film as being the debaucherous Roman Emperor Caligula, but this is never mentioned in the film. The Master Vampire makes references to how he was tricked into his fate and there is a narrative under-current that suggests Vlad is a pawn in a bigger game.

First-time feature director Gary Shore brings a lot of visual style to DRACULA UNTOLD. The Irishman’s background in directing television commercials has served him well and the tone of his film harkens back to the 1986 Russell Mulcahy film HIGHLANDER. Like Shore, Mulcahy transitioned his music video and television commercial experience into feature films.

The film’s Director of Photography is Jonathan Schwartzman, who is no stranger to lensing big-budget motion pictures. He served as DP on THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN reboot, has worked with Michael Bay on ARMAGEDDON & PEARL HARBOR and went straight from DRACULA UNTOLD to Colin Trevorrow’s JURASSIC WORLD. The combination of Shore’s enthusiasm and Schwartzman’s experience creates a film that is as good to look at as anything that has come out so far in 2014. 

DRACULA UNTOLD is not without its problems. Besides the unconvincing relationship between Evans and Parkinson as well as the problems with Cooper’s casting, the plot is under-developed. Too much of the film feels as though it’s been done before and better; especially Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version.

The biggest problem with DRACULA UNTOLD is that it falls into the same trap as another recent release THE MAZE RUNNER...

Studios are always seeking to establish the next major movie franchise and that make sense because the revenues from successful franchises are invested by studios to develop new film projects. The challenge with the relentless pursuit of a franchise strategy is the impact on a film’s plot and narrative. The Master Vampire is an example of this in Dracula Untold. Not only is he there to give Vlad what he needs, the Master Vampire delivers explicit dialogue in order to establish a broader vampire mythology for additional films. It’s both presumptive and ambitious on the part of the film’s producers and distributors that they believe the film will perform solidly enough to warrant further instalments. It’s a trend that also is somewhat conceited, as it take the audience who turn up to see DRACULA UNTOLD for granted.

By no means is DRACULA UNTOLD a bad movie. It’s stylish and its set-pieces are well staged. Horror fans may be disappointed by the relatively small amount of blood that is spilled, but vampire fans will enjoy the effort the film’s production team have made to create a gothic romanticised version of Dracula before became legend. 

DRACULA UNTOLD (2014) USEFUL LINKS

Dracula Untold - Wikipedia
​Dracula Untold (2014) - IMDb
​Dracula Untold (2014) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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