Dracula Untold

[Ayen]

I haven't seen a thread about this yet, so I thought I'd make one.

I saw this with my mom and brother last month, and will be the first to admit that I only wanted to see it because Charles Dance as a vampire. Plus, mom was paying for it so all I had to lose was time, but honestly, I loved it. I'm sure it probably has some problems I'd notice more of through repeat viewings (my critic mind doesn't usually come on the first time I watch something), but it kept my attention. Charles Dance made a great old school vampire with all that makeup, and I liked Luke Evans' performance as Dracula. He's no Bela Lugosi, but there will never be another Bela Lugosi and people playing the role shouldn't even try. For what they were going for, he did good.

I particularly like the way they explored the powers in the movie. Like when Vlad first gets them and is learning how to control everything. I think it was the most creative use of bats I've seen in a vampire flick in a while. If there's one thing I could nitpick, it's that the villain got off way too easy. I'm not going to say if he died or not, just that it felt like a slap on the wrist. MAKE HIM SQUEAL!

Who else saw it? What did you think? When can we expect the Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Invisible Man, Mummy, Creature of the Black Lagoon, and other classic monsters to make their return to the silver screen?

Discuss.

[Shauna]

I thought it was pretty terrible, tbh, and if this is the direction they're going for classic horror stories, and I can only hope that they stop.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I haven't seen it yet, but just based on the trailers I am very iffy about it. If it was its own stand alone thing, I don't think I'd mind it as much. As the first in a reboot for all the old universal monster movies, I wanted something that was much more horror focused and much less action based. That's not to say that the old movies are all that scary these days (though there are some legitimately disturbing scenes), but I'd love to see a reboot that tries more for horror.

Of course, i could be remembering the trailer wrong. I'll probably also enjoy it when/if I see it. I just wish the universal monster reboot as a whole went a different direction.

[Ayen]

I think the only scene that was trying for scary (and did make me jump a little) was the first appearance of Charles Dance's Master Vampire. After that it's pretty much action based like you said. As I said on Facebook, I have no real preference for how the Universal Monsters movies should be done, nor did I have any expectations going into the movie, so I wouldn't be surprised if that contributed in my enjoyment of it.

I might be able to know how some of you guys feel if The Invisible Man movie winds up sucking. Assuming they get that far. Dracula Untold already seems to have mixed reviews.

[Shaibana]

i had great hopes for this movie, but it completely failed (on me)
it was an Ok movie which i wouldnt watch a 2nd time.

to me Vlad had too much power and made the rest of the movie unrealistic.
often did i think ''if you used the power you use earlyer in the movie you could have fixed this''...
neither did he seem to have any real trouble with the lust for blood that was suppose to be so difficult to resist.

so.. yeah... that was it

[Shauna]

I haven't seen it yet, but just based on the trailers I am very iffy about it. If it was its own stand alone thing, I don't think I'd mind it as much. As the first in a reboot for all the old universal monster movies, I wanted something that was much more horror focused and much less action based. That's not to say that the old movies are all that scary these days (though there are some legitimately disturbing scenes), but I'd love to see a reboot that tries more for horror.

Of course, i could be remembering the trailer wrong. I'll probably also enjoy it when/if I see it. I just wish the universal monster reboot as a whole went a different direction.

Oh, you definitely aren't. It was a massive action movie with some kind of cool aspects, but it wasn't a horror movie, and I honestly don't think it was trying to be one. If they hadn't tied it to Dracula, it could have actually been about some random dude who got some magical powers and took out a whole army by himself.

Like, they mention that he might start to develop bloodlust - but, as Shaibana says, it never really manifests itself. He's completely under control of himself all the time, other than one time in which he made a sadface at his wife. It just feels like they had some wasted potential here and there to inject some classic vampire rubbish in there and make it a bit spookier than it was.

[Ayen]

Fair points on the strength and bloodlust bits. I thought they overdid it a tad with the one versus one-hundred thing. Or one thousand, I can't remember the exact number. Last I checked a vampire is supposed to have the strength of twenty men. If vampires are going to be that strong Van Helsing is smurfed.