Review: 'Dracula Untold' Has Both Cool Action and a Great Lead Actor

Erik Fattrosso ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

It’s easy to dismiss Dracula Untold as another movie in the style of I, Frankenstein: a pretty terrible movie about a classic monster that could be enjoyable for what it is, but can’t be considered truly good in any sense of the word. However, in this case you’d be wrong. Dracula Untold isn’t a great movie, but it’s a good time that can hold itself up and keep you entertained for its 90 minute runtime. Starring Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman in the Hobbit trilogy) as Vlad the Impaler, rather than start off as Dracula, the movie is more of an origin story than anything else.
At the beginning of the film, Vlad’s life is going pretty well. He since left the Turk army and now rules over Transylvania with his wife and son. When the Turks Sultan (Dominic Cooper) demands 1,000 children as tribute, Vlad needs to obtain dark powers from the current vampire (Charles Dance) to protect his kingdom from the massive Turk army. The premise is simple enough and it works. Dance very convincingly portrays the downright creepy vampire and makes it clear that having these powers is no joke.
Watching Vlad slowly transform into the Dracula we know is interesting and makes the predictable plot still work. The dialogue isn’t bad, but it’s also nothing special. Most of it comes off as typical myth-type dialogue, so it can be a little silly if you’re expecting a more grounded movie. That being said, you really shouldn’t be expecting a grounded Dracula movie.

The narrative isn’t always the strongest. It has its fair share of laughs and while some of them were clearly intended, there were a few times where I couldn’t tell if it was unintentionally funny (a group of friendly soldiers running onto the battlefield after Vlad killed literally everyone stands out). The actors are all solid and Evans in particular is great, but Sarah Gadon (who plays his wife Mirena) could take an acting class or two. She wasn’t horrible, but she definitely left something to be desired.
Once Vlad gets his powers, the movie really starts to pick up. Watching him rip apart entire armies singlehandedly by himself is downright entertaining and the visuals are beautiful. At times drawing from movies like 300, it has a unique enough style to feel new.  A set piece near the end of the movie that I won’t spoil actually had my jaw drop, and one shot in particular that uses a first person sword reflection to show action was just awesome.  For everything like that though, there’s something like the climactic moment of act two that just didn’t work. A culmination of predictability and overproducing had it fall apart.
Dracula Untold can be a very enjoyable movie. It has flaws, but it does enough right to make it worth watching. Cool action and great lead actor push the movie forward, and the plot does just enough to not feel boring.
Overall Grade: B-

Watch The Trailer: