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===Critical reception===
===Critical reception===
''Dracula Untold'' has received mixed reviews from critics. Many critics criticized Dracula's characterization and pointed out plot holes, but praised Luke Evans' performance, the story, and the visuals. On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has a rating of 23% based on 109 reviews; the average rating is 4.4/10. The site's consensus reads, "Neither awful enough to suck nor sharp enough to bite, ''Dracula Untold'' misses the point of its iconic character's deathless appeal."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dracula_untold/ | title=Dracula Untold | work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] | publisher=[[Flixster]] | accessdate=January 31, 2015}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a score of 40/100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/dracula-untold | title=Dracula Untold Reviews | work=[[Metacritic]] | publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] | accessdate=October 10, 2014}}</ref> The unfavorable critical aggregate scores contrast with an audience rating of A- from CinemaScore's opening night poll.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cinemascore.com/ | title=CinemaScore | publisher=CinemaScore | accessdate=23 November 2014}}</ref>
''Dracula Untold'' has received mixed reviews from critics, but it has been received generally well from audiences.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Dracula Untold: An IMAX Experience (2014) Movie Reviews - Fan Reviews and Ratings - Fandango|url = http://www.fandango.com/draculauntold:animaxexperience_174417/moviereviews|website = Fandango|accessdate = 2015-06-18}}</ref> Many critics criticized Dracula's characterization and pointed out plot holes, but praised Luke Evans' performance, the story, and the visuals. On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film has a rating of 23% based on 109 reviews; the average rating is 4.4/10. The site's consensus reads, "Neither awful enough to suck nor sharp enough to bite, ''Dracula Untold'' misses the point of its iconic character's deathless appeal."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dracula_untold/ | title=Dracula Untold | work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] | publisher=[[Flixster]] | accessdate=January 31, 2015}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a score of 40/100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.metacritic.com/movie/dracula-untold | title=Dracula Untold Reviews | work=[[Metacritic]] | publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] | accessdate=October 10, 2014}}</ref> The unfavorable critical aggregate scores contrast with an audience rating of A- from CinemaScore's opening night poll.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cinemascore.com/ | title=CinemaScore | publisher=CinemaScore | accessdate=23 November 2014}}</ref>


[[Frank Scheck]] of ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' said, "Much like the recent, widely reviled ''[[I, Frankenstein]]'', this misconceived project mainly signals a need to go back to the drawing board."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Scheck|first1=Frank|title='Dracula Untold': Film Review|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/dracula-untold-film-review-736986|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=hollywoodreporter.com|date=September 30, 2014}}</ref> ''[[The Village Voice]]'s'' Alan Scherstuhl criticized the film, "And so it was, and so it was dull, the greatest villain in all cinema bitten on the neck and drained of his hottest blood."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Scherstuhl|first1=Alan|title=Dracula Untold: What's the Fun of a Dracula Who Hates Neck-Biting?|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2014-10-08/film/dracula-untold/|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=villagevoice.com|date=October 8, 2014}}</ref> Kyle Anderson of the ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave the film a C grade and wrote, "It works neither as a sweeping historical epic nor as an action-horror hybrid."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Anderson|first1=Kyle|title=Dracula Untold Review|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20859840,00.html|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=ew.com|date=October 8, 2014}}</ref> Stephen Whitty wrote the negative review for ''[[The Star-Ledger]]'', "If this Dracula can kill hundreds of enemies by himself - and he can, and does, in several dull and protracted battle scenes - then where's the suspense? If he's become a monster for noble reasons, then where's the dark conflict?"<ref>{{cite news|last1=Whitty|first1=Stephen|title='Dracula Untold' review: Fangs for nothing|url=http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/10/dracula_untold_review_fangs_for_nothing.html|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=nj.com|date=October 8, 2014}}</ref> ''[[The Seattle Times]]'' Moira MacDonald said, "It falls into that far-too-large category of studio offerings that aren't good enough to be noteworthy or terrible enough to be truly entertaining."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Macdonald|first1=Moira|title=‘Dracula Untold’ has very little to say|url=http://seattletimes.com/html/movies/2024733196_draculauntoldxml.html?syndication=rss|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=seattletimes.com|date=October 9, 2014}}</ref>
[[Frank Scheck]] of ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' said, "Much like the recent, widely reviled ''[[I, Frankenstein]]'', this misconceived project mainly signals a need to go back to the drawing board."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Scheck|first1=Frank|title='Dracula Untold': Film Review|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/dracula-untold-film-review-736986|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=hollywoodreporter.com|date=September 30, 2014}}</ref> ''[[The Village Voice]]'s'' Alan Scherstuhl criticized the film, "And so it was, and so it was dull, the greatest villain in all cinema bitten on the neck and drained of his hottest blood."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Scherstuhl|first1=Alan|title=Dracula Untold: What's the Fun of a Dracula Who Hates Neck-Biting?|url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2014-10-08/film/dracula-untold/|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=villagevoice.com|date=October 8, 2014}}</ref> Kyle Anderson of the ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave the film a C grade and wrote, "It works neither as a sweeping historical epic nor as an action-horror hybrid."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Anderson|first1=Kyle|title=Dracula Untold Review|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20859840,00.html|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=ew.com|date=October 8, 2014}}</ref> Stephen Whitty wrote the negative review for ''[[The Star-Ledger]]'', "If this Dracula can kill hundreds of enemies by himself - and he can, and does, in several dull and protracted battle scenes - then where's the suspense? If he's become a monster for noble reasons, then where's the dark conflict?"<ref>{{cite news|last1=Whitty|first1=Stephen|title='Dracula Untold' review: Fangs for nothing|url=http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/10/dracula_untold_review_fangs_for_nothing.html|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=nj.com|date=October 8, 2014}}</ref> ''[[The Seattle Times]]'' Moira MacDonald said, "It falls into that far-too-large category of studio offerings that aren't good enough to be noteworthy or terrible enough to be truly entertaining."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Macdonald|first1=Moira|title=‘Dracula Untold’ has very little to say|url=http://seattletimes.com/html/movies/2024733196_draculauntoldxml.html?syndication=rss|accessdate=October 14, 2014|publisher=seattletimes.com|date=October 9, 2014}}</ref>

Revision as of 16:31, 18 June 2015

Dracula Untold
A man walking away from a large amount of bats.
IMAX exclusive theatrical release poster
Directed byGary Shore
Screenplay by
  • Matt Sazama
  • Burk Sharpless
Produced byMichael De Luca
Starring
CinematographyJohn Schwartzman
Edited byRichard Pearson
Music byRamin Djawadi[1]
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • October 10, 2014 (2014-10-10)
Running time
92 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$70 million[3]
Box office$215.5 million[3]

Dracula Untold (previously known as Dracula: Year Zero) is a 2014 American dark fantasy action horror film directed by Gary Shore in his feature film debut and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.[4] Rather than focus on Irish novelist Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, the film creates an origin story for its title character, Count Dracula, by re-imagining the story of Vlad the Impaler. Luke Evans portrays the title character, and Sarah Gadon, Dominic Cooper, Art Parkinson, and Charles Dance appear in supporting roles.

Principal photography began on August 5, 2013, in Northern Ireland. Universal Pictures released the film on October 10, 2014, in cinemas and IMAX. Universal intends the film to be a reboot of the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe .[5]

Despite mixed critical reviews, Dracula Untold was a box office success grossing $215 million worldwide.

Plot

In the Middle Ages, Vlad the Impaler is the prince of Wallachia and Transylvania. As a child, he was a princely hostage of the Ottoman Empire and trained to be a soldier in the Sultan's elite Janissary corp, where he became their most feared warrior, nicknamed the Impaler, after slaughtering thousands by impaling them on spears. Eventually sickened by his acts, he put aside his past and returned to rule his domains in peace. One day in the forest, Vlad and his soldiers discover a helmet in a stream, fearing that an Ottoman scouting party is preparing the way for invasion. They follow the stream to a high mountain cave called Broke Tooth Mountain. Upon entering the cave, they discover the ground of the cave is carpeted in crushed bone, before they are attacked in the dark by an unknown creature. While his men are killed, Vlad cuts the creature of the cave with his sword before being thrown to the ground. The blood on the sword he used to cut the creature dissolves when exposed to sunlight, and the creature does not pursue Vlad due to sunlight at the mouth of the cave. Returning to his castle, Vlad finds out from a local monk that the creature is a vampire, once a man who summoned a demon from the depths of hell and made a pact with it for dark powers before being tricked by the demon and cursed to remain in the cave forever until he is released by someone who drinks his blood, then drinks the blood of a human. The person is welcome to share his power in exchange for the freedom to escape the cave.

The next day, as Vlad celebrates an Easter feast with his wife Mirena, his son Ingeras, and his subjects, an Ottoman contingent arrives unexpectedly at the castle. Vlad offers them the usual tribute payment of silver coins, but the emissary notes that a battalion of Ottoman scouts has gone missing, implying that Vlad has had them killed. Vlad professes that he had not killed them. The emissary demands an additional tribute of 1,000 boys to be trained as Janissaries, through the devşirme system. Vlad refuses, but his army is small and no match for the Turks. Mirena believes that due to Vlad and Mehmed's history together as children, being close like brothers, if he were to ask, Mehmed would show him mercy. He approaches Mehmed II and asks him not to take the country's boys, and when that fails, he offers himself in place of the boys, but the Sultan refuses, and demands Vlad's son in addition. The sultan sends the emissary to bring Vlad's son. Vlad has an argument with his wife, as he is sending his son to meet the emissary and Ottoman soldiers. Vlad tells his wife to trust him before leaving his wife and son and going to meet the emissary and the soldiers alone. He is unarmed, but his son, afraid for him, runs to him, takes his hand, and tells his father that he is ready to join the sultan's army. As Vlad approaches the Turks, the emissary, smiling, tells Vlad that he thought there would be some kind of difficulty. Vlad tells his son to run back to his mother, then takes the emissary's sword and kills him and his small entourage of soldiers.

Knowing his actions will lead to war, Vlad returns to the Broke Tooth Mountain cave to seek help from the vampire. Once inside, the vampire asks Vlad why he returned. Vlad replies by saying he needs the power of the vampire so that he can defeat the Ottoman army. The vampire tells him there are consequences and offers him some of his blood, which will temporarily give Vlad the powers of a vampire. If he resists the intense urge to drink human blood for three days, he will turn back into a human. Otherwise, he will remain a vampire forever, and will one day be called upon to help his maker. Vlad accepts the offer and drinks the vampire's blood.

Waking up in the forest afterwards, Vlad discovers he has been granted heightened senses, increased strength, and the ability to transform into a flock of bats, but his skin slowly burns in direct sunlight. When he returns to Castle Dracula, the Ottoman army attacks, but Vlad single-handedly kills them all. He then sends most of the castle's subjects to Cozia Monastery, which is situated on the edge of a mountain, as a better base for safety. During the journey, Mirena learns of Vlad's curse, but after Vlad promises he will resist human blood, she accepts that he will regain his mortality once the Ottomans are defeated. A Romani named Shkelgim, who knows Vlad is a vampire, proclaims himself as his servant and offers his own blood, but Vlad resists. As they near the monastery, the Valahs are ambushed by Ottoman soldiers, and while Vlad and his men successfully repel them, Vlad's sudden increased strength arouses suspicion among his subjects. The next day at the monastery, a monk learns of the curse and leads the prince's subjects to turn on Vlad, trapping him in a burning building. Black smoke blocks out the sun, allowing an outraged Vlad to escape the fire, and he angrily reveals that he became a vampire for the sole purpose of protecting his people from the Ottoman suzerainty.

That night, the Ottoman army marches on the monastery. Vlad commands an enormous swarm of bats to repel them; however, the soldiers are actually a decoy force, allowing a handful of Turks to infiltrate the monastery and kidnap Ingeras. Mirena tries to defend her son, and falls from the edge of the monastery wall. Dying, Mirena pleads with Vlad to drink her blood before the sun rises to give him the strength to save their son. Vlad reluctantly drinks her blood, triggering his final transformation into a full-blooded vampire and granting him even greater powers. Vlad returns to the monastery and turns a small group of survivors into vampires as well. At the Ottoman camp, Mehmed prepares for a massive invasion of Europe through the Balkans and Hungary. Vlad's vampires arrive and massacre the soldiers, while Vlad himself goes after Mehmed, who is holding Ingeras captive. Aware that vampires are weakened by silver, Mehmed has lined the floor of his tent with silver coins and fights Vlad with a silver sword. He overpowers Vlad and prepares to impale his heart with a wooden stake, but Vlad turns into a flock of bats and evades him. Taking the name "Dracula, Son of the Devil", he kills Mehmed and drinks his blood.

As they leave Mehmed's tent, Dracula and Ingeras are confronted by the other vampires, who demand that his son be killed because he is human. The monk who had previously led the Valahs against Vlad appears and keeps the vampires at bay with a Christian cross. Dracula orders the monk to take Ingeras away, then uses his power to clear the black clouds in the sky. The sunlight burns the vampires into dust, while Dracula collapses into a charred corpse. With Europe saved from invasion, Ingeras is crowned the new Prince of Wallachia, and Vlad the Impaler is presumed dead. However, Shkelgim secretly takes Dracula into the shadows and revives him with his blood.

In the present day, Vlad meets a woman named Mina, who strikingly resembles Mirena, in the streets of a modern city (London), and they have a conversation about a line of poetry they have in common. The vampire who cursed Vlad watches them from afar, and anticipates what he has planned for Dracula in the future, saying, "Let the games begin."

Cast

Production

Anybody who’s going to the film expecting a horror film, is going to be sorely disappointed. For me, it was telling a story. I was trying to tell a good drama, that has action-adventure elements to it.

—Gary Shore, director[11]

In 2007, director Alex Proyas was hired by Universal Studios to direct the film Dracula: Year Zero.[12] The film was to be produced by Michael De Luca and filmed in Australia.[13] Later, Universal ended the deals with Proyas and scheduled star Sam Worthington because of the high budget. It was announced on February 10, 2012, by Deadline.com that Irish director Gary Shore was in talks to direct.[4] Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless wrote the script for the new film.[14] On April 25, 2013, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Universal had announced that the film would be released on August 8, 2014.[15] On May 20, 2013, First Minister of Northern Ireland Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness announced that Universal would film Dracula in August in Northern Ireland.[16] On August 29, 2013, Variety reported that Legendary Pictures was considering co-financing the film.[17] Legendary's involvement in production was confirmed in May 2014.[18]

Casting

On January 25, 2010, it was announced that Sam Worthington was in negotiations to play Vlad the Impaler and the film was set to release in 2011.[19] On August 19, Worthington was confirmed to star in the film.[20] On February 10, 2012, Deadline confirmed that Universal closed the deal with Worthington.[4] On April 8, 2013, actor Luke Evans joined the cast, replacing Worthington to play the role of Vlad the Impaler, the man who would become the mythological bloodsucker Dracula.[6] On May 2, 2013, Sarah Gadon joined the cast to star alongside Evans.[7] On May 8 Variety announced that Dominic Cooper was in talks to join the cast.[8] On July 11, 2013, Zach McGowan also signed on, to play the role of Shkelgim, a gypsy chief.[10] On July 26, Samantha Barks joined the cast to play a character from Eastern European folk tales known as Baba Yaga, a beautiful young woman who transforms into a savage witch; her scenes were later cut from the film.[21] Along with Barks more cast was added, including Charlie Cox, Ferdinand Kingsley, William Houston and Thor Kristjansson, the latter of whom would play the role of Bright Eyes, an Eastern European taken as a slave as a young boy and now an assassin in the Ottoman Army.[9] Art Parkinson then joined on to play the role of Ingeras, son of Dracula.[9]

On October 15, 2014, it was announced that if the film was included in a rebooted Universal Monsters universe then Charles Dance's character "Master Vampire" could appear in several Universal Monsters films, much like Samuel L. Jackson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.[22]

Filming

On May 20, 2013, Universal confirmed that shooting would take place in Northern Ireland from August to November 2013.[23] The film's shooting officially began on August 5, 2013, starting in Roe Valley Country Park in NI.[24] The production company received permission for two days of shooting, on August 5–6, to film in the park.[25] Other location shooting took place throughout Northern Ireland.[26][27]

In September 2014, actor Evans revealed that every day after work he got training all the time, rehearsed with the stunt guys, and ate just chicken, beef, fish and green vegetables to get ready for the shoot of the film.[28]

Reshoots and Universal Monsters

On October 1, 2014, it was announced that reshoots had taken place shortly after the end of production to tie the movie into the planned Universal Monsters franchise, which was being rebooted.[29] Producer Alissa Phillips confirmed at the UK Premiere of the film that Dracula Untold was a part of the universe. She hoped that Evans' character might have a cameo in a future The Mummy film and also spoke of a potential sequel to Dracula to reboot the franchise.[30] In an interview with IGN, director Gary Shore stated "It's optional for them if they want to use it as that launching pad."[31] On October 15, THR reported that the ending scenes of the film hinted that the film Dracula Untold could be included into the monsters universe.[22]

Music

Ramin Djawadi's score for the film was released by Backlot Music on October 7 on CD.[32] Djawadi was originally chosen to work on the film's musical score after his work on Iron Man and Clash of the Titans, and after signing on to score the film, he gave up his job of scoring the film Edge of Tomorrow, which was given to Christophe Beck.[33] The official trailer features Lorde's cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," which was produced by Michael A. Levine and Lucas Cantor.[34]

Release

On April 25, 2013, Universal announced that the film would be released in theaters on August 8, 2014.[35] It was announced four months later that the film would be postponed until October 3, 2014.[36] The release date was pushed a third time to October 17, 2014.[37] The release date was changed for a fourth and final time to October 10, 2014, to give the film three weeks of play before Halloween.[38] The film was released in all formats including IMAX, and in over 25 foreign markets, on its opening weekend.[39]

Home media

Dracula Untold was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on February 3, 2015.[40] The Blu-ray release comes with alternate opening, deleted scenes, The Land of Dracula (Interactive Map), Luke Evans: Creating a Legend.[41]

Reception

Box office

As of January 11, 2015, the film grossed $56,280,335 in North America and $159,248,846 in other territories for a worldwide total of $215,529,201 against a budget of $70 million.[3]

North America

Dracula Untold was released in North America on October 10, 2014 across 2,885 cinemas.[42] It earned $1.3 million from Thursday late night showings from 2,133 theaters[43] and $8.9 million in its opening day.[44] The film debuted at #2 at the box office in its opening weekend grossing $24.5 million behind Gone Girl.[45] $4 million of the opening gross came from IMAX showings from 351 of its 2,887 locations which is the second-best October total behind only Gravity. 9 of the top 10 locations as well as 18 of the top 20 were in IMAX.[46] The film played 57% male and 61% over-25 years old.[47] In its second weekend the film 58% -and earned $9.9 million.[48]

Other territories

A few days ahead of its U.S. debut, Dracula Untold was released in 25 foreign markets and earned $21 million. It had a strong $5 million four-day opening in Mexico. The highest debuts came from Australia ($9 million), Germany ($4 million), Malaysia ($3 million) and France ($1 million).[49][50] The following weekend the film was released to over 42 foreign territories and earned $33.9 million.[51] The film went number one in nine of the 17 new released territories.[52] It earned $2.5 million from 155 IMAX screens for an overall total of 4.5 million and an international total of $8.5 million.[53] It went #1 in Bolivia, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Philippines, Slovakia, Thailand, Trinidad and Vietnam.[54] The film was released to four new markets in its third weekend and earned $14.7 million from 59 territories where Brazil generated $2.7 million and Spain collected $1.8 million.[55] The film opened in Italy at #1 earning $3 million accounting 25% of the market shares. In Japan it earned $1.4 million.[56]

Critical reception

Dracula Untold has received mixed reviews from critics, but it has been received generally well from audiences.[57] Many critics criticized Dracula's characterization and pointed out plot holes, but praised Luke Evans' performance, the story, and the visuals. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 23% based on 109 reviews; the average rating is 4.4/10. The site's consensus reads, "Neither awful enough to suck nor sharp enough to bite, Dracula Untold misses the point of its iconic character's deathless appeal."[58] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 40/100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[59] The unfavorable critical aggregate scores contrast with an audience rating of A- from CinemaScore's opening night poll.[60]

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Much like the recent, widely reviled I, Frankenstein, this misconceived project mainly signals a need to go back to the drawing board."[61] The Village Voice's Alan Scherstuhl criticized the film, "And so it was, and so it was dull, the greatest villain in all cinema bitten on the neck and drained of his hottest blood."[62] Kyle Anderson of the Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C grade and wrote, "It works neither as a sweeping historical epic nor as an action-horror hybrid."[63] Stephen Whitty wrote the negative review for The Star-Ledger, "If this Dracula can kill hundreds of enemies by himself - and he can, and does, in several dull and protracted battle scenes - then where's the suspense? If he's become a monster for noble reasons, then where's the dark conflict?"[64] The Seattle Times Moira MacDonald said, "It falls into that far-too-large category of studio offerings that aren't good enough to be noteworthy or terrible enough to be truly entertaining."[65]

A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club said, "Neither the Dracula we need nor the one we deserve."[66] The "New York" magazine's Bilge Ebiri wrote, "I don't want to oversell this film. But in an era in which we've seen a lot of failed attempts to reinvent classic fantasy tales as CGI-action spectacles, it feels remarkably assured."[67] Film critic Mick LaSalle gave the film two stars out of four and wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, "Here we have a vampire movie that brings together elements from other more popular movies."[68] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post reviewed and responded in negative, "The film's problems aren't limited to liberal cadging from comic books. In fact, that's precisely what's best about the film, which occasionally boasts gorgeous visuals. But the movie doesn't know when to stop stealing."[69] Jordan Hoffman of the New York Daily News said, "The weapons, Turkish helmets and Romanian interiors are all gorgeous. If only the rest of this Lord of the Rings wanna-be were at the same level."[70] Kevin C. Johnson commented for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Dracula Untold feels longer than its 95-minute running time."[71]

The New York Post's Kyle Smith wrote, "This Vlad the Impaler has all the edge of Vlasic the pickle."[72] Brian Truitt of USA Today said, "At times Dracula Untold flirts with dullness so much that it might as well just stick a stake in the heart of Bram Stoker's legacy."[73] The Toronto Star's Peter Howell asked, "Whatever possessed the makers of Dracula Untold to think we'd be interested in a tragically unhip romance that backstories the infamous bloodsucker?"[74] The Boston Globe's Peter Keough criticized the film, "It's not so much untold as rewritten - if not by J.R.R. Tolkien than by some clever 12-year-old overstimulated by The Lord of the Rings."[75] Film critic Ben Kenigsberg reviewed the film for The New York Times, "The movie is the latest multiplex filler to co-opt a classic tale only to drown it in computer-generated murk. Even the title has the ring of something created by committee."[76] James Berardinelli reviewed for website ReelViews, "A generic vampire tale in the Underworld vein that comes closer to the infamous Van Helsing than a memorable re-interpretation of a legendary monster."[77] The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Hiltbrand said, "The idea is to humanize one of the most fearful monsters in the Western crypt. But Dracula Untold goes way overboard, past domestication and into canonization."[78] Wesley Morris wrote for the website Grantland, "Most of the time, I found myself feeling like I was waiting for a turn with the gaming controls."[79]

Richard Corliss from TIME magazine compared Dracula’s origin story to Jesus’s story due to Dracula spending his childhood in a foreign land, and due to Dracula choosing to die (or become undead) in order to save his people. Richard also complimented the movie’s use of its PG-13 rating by describing it as “robust.” In his review, he stated, “Most reviewers have slammed the movie, but it’s not nearly as awful, or offal, as its critical odor.” He later stated, "[Evans] carries Untold by admirably fulfilling the two essential functions of a period-movie hero: to enunciate comic-book dialogue with Shakespearean authority and to look great with his shirt off."[80] Graham Killeen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gave a positive review and wrote, "Dracula Untold tries to be The Lord of the Rings of horror movies. Surprisingly, it mostly succeeds."[81]

Sequel

On October 2, 2014, executive producer Alissa Phillips revealed at the UK premiere of the film that there might be a sequel to the film.[30] On November 3, 2014, Box Office Mojo speculated that, based on domestic and foreign earnings to date, the film "is likely on the edge of earning enough to start a modest franchise."[82]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ramin Djawadi to Score 'Dracula Untold'". FilmMusicReporter. February 11, 2014.
  2. ^ "DRACULA UNTOLD (15)". British Board of Film Classification. September 24, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
  3. ^ a b c "Dracula Untold (2014)". Boxofficemojo.com. IMDB. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c "Universal Revives 'Dracula Year Zero' With Director Gary Shore". deadline.com. February 10, 2012. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  5. ^ Barsanti, Sam (July 16, 2014). "Universal Is Officially Rebooting Its Monster Movies into an Avengers-style Universe". A. V. Club.
  6. ^ a b "Luke Evans to Star in Universal's 'Dracula' Reboot". hollywoodreporter.com. April 8, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  7. ^ a b "Sarah Gadon Under 'Dracula' Spell for Universal". variety.com. May 2, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  8. ^ a b "Universal's 'Dracula' Sinks Its Fangs Into Dominic Cooper". variety.com. May 8, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  9. ^ a b c d e "'Les Miserables,' 'Game of Thrones' Actors Join Universal's 'Dracula'". hollywoodreporter.com. July 26, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  10. ^ a b "Zach McGowan Joins Universal's 'Dracula'". deadline.com. July 11, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  11. ^ Butler, Tom (September 29, 2014). "Dracula Untold Interview: It's Not A Horror Film". yahoo.com. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  12. ^ "Alex Proyas To Direct Dracula Year Zero". themovieblog.com. July 11, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  13. ^ "Proyas to direct Universal's 'Dracula' and De Luca to produce Vlad the Impaler tale". variety.com. July 10, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  14. ^ "Universal Revives 'Dracula Year Zero' Without Sam Worthington & Alex Proyas; Gary Shore To Direct". indiewire.com. February 11, 2012. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  15. ^ "Universal Sets Release Date for 'Dracula'". hollywoodreporter.com. April 25, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  16. ^ "Dracula movie from Universal Pictures to be filmed in Northern Ireland". bbc.co.uk. May 20, 2013. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  17. ^ Graser, Marc and Rachel Abrams (August 29, 2013). "'Dracula' Eyed as Legendary's First Film with Universal Pictures". Variety. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  18. ^ Graser, Marc (May 6, 2014). "Legendary Backs 'Jurassic World,' Signs TV Deal with Lorenzo Di Bonaventura". Variety. Retrieved May 7, 2014.
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