This film takes us back to the 15th century. In Transylvania the prince of Wallachia, Vlad III (played by Luke Evans), rules the land in a fair and just manner. His goal is to protect his people and his family from the Ottoman Empire among other potential threats. He strikes a deal, however when Sultan Mehmed II (played by Dominic Cooper) requires 1,000 Wallachia boys (including Vlad’s son) for his army, Vlad turns to darker forces, striking a deal with the devil to defeat the Turks. But he will pay the ultimate price.
Luke Evans is a decent actor and he’s been attached to some pretty major franchises recently including The Fast and Furious and The Hobbit movies, but going into this I wondered if he was truly leading man material. He can play either the protagonist or antagonist believably enough so the role of Dracula had potential to suit him well. And I had no doubts that Charles Dance (aka Tywin Lannister from A Game of Thrones) could nail his role as the Master Vampire. For the most part I believe they delivered and could have done even better with a better script.
I love vampire novels and films (save for Twilight) so it definitely had goodwill going in from my end. But unfortunately, this ended up being one of those cases where the trailer is better than the film. I still really like that trailer but the release time for this film was an early signal that it wasn’t going to be that great. It feels as if people have had their fill of the vampire craze for a while, so it’s hard to be successful without truly changing the game.
While I thought it was shot well and I liked some of the special effects and action sequences, what brings this film down is its weak plot. With such an ambitious title for this film, it raises expectations to bring someone new and interesting to the table. Clocking in at about an hour and a half, areas that could have been expanded upon to deepen the story come off as superficial at best. Its PG-13 rating also holds it back on taking the story and certain scenes in a darker direction.
Overall, while I wasn’t expecting epic, I was hoping for something better than the final product, so it’s someone of a disappointment. It sets itself up for a sequel or more so if they make one I hope they can improve on this film’s weak points. I would watch the sequel.