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Friday, November 7, 2014

Quick Movie Review: Dracula Untold (2014)



Going into this movie, I was excited. Excited because I love origin stories. I mean, I figured that it wasn't going to be amazing, but at least I would be entertained with a unique background to a well-known character. And I was loving it. It wasn't perfect, but it was turning into a pleasant surprise much like 2010's Predators did. It has a nice theme, a likable title character, and an interesting premise. It also wisely made the audience wonder for the entire film if Dracula was going to fail his challenge or prevail.

And then something happens. It's the moment you see his wife falling to her death. Honestly I actually thought that he was going to make her drink his blood so that she would continue to live--a decision I would have been okay with. But instead he kills her to regain his own strength, which is now permanent, instead of saving her by just giving her the same "three day challenge" that he underwent--which, by the way, was forgotten about once the 3rd act hit.

It decides to throws its theme out the window in the last 15 minutes and Dracula seems to have no motives whatsoever, which deprives this film of being powerful at all, becoming a directionless contradiction. I haven't watched a movie in a long time that is so unsure of its own theme. It's like the last 1/4 of the movie had a different writer. And to top it off, there are a couple of easily avoidable plot holes. For instance, why is it necessary for Dracula to turn all those people into vampires? He is powerful enough to defeat the army alone. Also, the idea is that when the subject drinks his blood, he or she has three days to resist human blood, or else the vampire whose blood he or she drank ceases to be a vampire anymore. That doesn't happen. At all. I think the writers forgot to edit the last 15 pages of the script. 

Dracula ends up losing his son anyway, which was the exact fear that catalyzed him seeking those powers to begin with.

I gave this film as high of a rating as I did because I actually was really liking it up until the 3rd act. But ultimately, it proved to be directionless.

Twizard Rating: 70

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