Dracula Untold

How many incarnations of the Dracula franchise have we seen? Well, it all started with "Dracula" '31. Through its success the ball started rolling with "Dracula" '79, "Dracula" '92, "Dracula 2000", "Dracula 3D" '12, "Dracula" '13, and now we are served with "Dracula Untold". Not only do we have a continuation of a franchise, but also we have the beginnings of the infamous character. Beginnings of a character or characters have become quite popular: "Batman", "Star Wars", "Planet of the Apes", "Star Trek", and the like, so why not have a beginnings of someone as iconic as Dracula?

In the 15th century, the young lord Vlad (Luke Evans) and his family--wife, Mirena (Sarah Gadon) and son, Ingeras (Art Parkinson) live a peaceful life ruling over a small kingdom in Rumania, but when a Turk warlord, Mehmed (Dominic Cooper) and henchman, Hamza Bey (Ferdinand Kingsley) demands from Vlad a thousand boys and his son to create an army, Vlad seeks a terrible power, a master vampire (Charles Dance), which he knew of, that will allow him to protect his kingdom and family from the Turks at a terrible cost. Cost? To drink the vampire's blood in order to have the strength to overpower his enemies lest Vlad's kingdom and everyone in it would be killed. The price for this power? Vlad will recover to mortality in three days, however if he succumbs to drinking anyone's blood, only being dammed as a vampire for eternity. This is, of course, the origins of Dracula.

Others to round out the cast are Diarmaid Murtagh as Dumitru, Paul Kaye as Brother Lucian, William Houston as Cazan, Noah Huntley as Captain Petru, Ronan Vibert as Simion, Zach McGowan as Shkelgim, Joseph Long as General Omer, Thor Kristjansson as Bright Eyes and Jakub Gierszal as Acemi.

Where in the world is Hollywood getting these new directors? This was directed by relative newcomer, Gary Shore ("The Draft" (short) '06). Even though this had a few places of some jerkiness and awkward pacing, the direction is better than some of the seasoned directors out there today. I'd like to see what this guy could pull off given more work his way. It was written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless based on characters created by Bram Stoker. As a 'beginnings' of this character, it is truly easy to believe that the occurrences that happened to Vlad, although not being condoned, would be understandable what with the incredible tenseness he was under and the responsibility of all the people of his kingdom. I guess one might say that he was put between the proverbial 'rock and a hard place'. The main problem I had with this was the fact that when the Turks attacked Vlad and his kingdom, they would invariably attack either when it was overcast or in the evening--hardly ever in the day. Why is this? Well, there certainly wouldn't be much of a film if they didn't, since vampires cannot tolerate sunlight. Raybans anyone?

If you're a Dracula 'groupie' you'll love this, especially it being its beginnings, but even if not, the premise of this will still keep your attention, not to mention it has some nifty visual effects predominantly designed by Framestore that will knock your socks off.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                 Rated: PG-13                                  92mins.