Dir: Gary Shore
As a young boy, Vlad Tepes (Luke Evans THE RAVEN), is sent along with 1,000 other lads to train with and fight for the Turks. The tortuous regime brings out Vlad's killer instinct and he excels at the brutal combat they must endure. As an adult he takes his rightful place by birth as ruler of his kingdom but the presence of the Turkish empire looms large. After years of peace and prosperity, Vlad has a wife and child and is seen as a noble leader. The Turks, with an insatiable thirst for conquest, are in need of fresh meat, and come calling to Vlad. He is to supply 1,000 boys and his son or the kingdom will be destroyed. At first agreeing to the pact, like his father before him, Vlad changes his mind and slaughters the Turkish delegation. The die has been cast and the kingdom must prepare for war.
Knowing that the kingdom cannot withstand the Turkish onslaught, Vlad travels to Broken Tooth mountain and a cave in that mountain that is home to a vampire (Charles Dance PATRICK). Vlad makes a deal with the vampire. He will have the powers of the creature but must resist drinking blood for three days or else will be cursed for all eternity. With the Turks laying siege to castle Dracula, Vlad uses his new found powers to single-handedly lay waste to the besiegers. But the Turkish army is massive and his thirst for blood grows from within.
Universal re-booting its Dracula (along with their other monster franchises)? It's an intriguing idea. First time director Gary Shore gets things off to a good start by presenting a Dracula film that often looks beautiful. Writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless tap into the real Vlad Tepes biography to add authenticity to the film (I'm not saying the film is authentic but rather that I liked how elements of the real Vlad are incorporated into the tale). We have Universal and a dedicated creative team bringing to life Dracula for the umpteenth time. What the hell happened? The viewers are given a bland, predicable action adventure film with little or no suspense or horror. Dracula is more tormented super hero than undead monster. He can tear through an entire army of Turks without breaking a sweat and be back in time to bed his wife. This is a family oriented Dracula looking out for his wife, child and subjects. He's not a monster to be feared by all humanity but a super dad on the look out for the local bully.
If Universal does re-boot the other franchise monsters and purposely ignore that they are monsters and are meant to be scary they will be doing a great disservice to the iconic creatures they gave immortality to.
** out of ****
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