Plot
Prince Vladislav, is a warrior in Romania, who renounces God following the murder of his wife Elisabeta. Because of his actions, he is condemned to become a vampire – and becomes Dracula.
Centuries later, he discovers that his beloved is reincarnated, and living in Paris. Her name is Mina, and her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, a solicitor who has come to him on business.
Dracula then imprisons Harker, travels to Paris to find Mina,
Meanwhile, a Priest who knows of vampires, believes one to be coming to Paris soon, and vows to stop him.
Direction
Directed by Luc Besson – who tries his best to make this version of the film his own, but… well read my review in the breakdown.
The sets are glorious as are the costumes, etc. I’ve seen other films which are set around this era (The Ugly Step Sister) – which are able to really sell the era. Whereas here, it felt like they were trying to go over the top, and sadly it feels too much.
Cast
Caleb Landry Jones plays Dracula. His performance is solid, and makes use of his non traditional physical features effectively.
Christopher Waltz doesn’t play Van Helsing. Rather his priest character goes unnamed. He is fine, but I feel he’s slightly typecasting himself in similar roles of late, such as Frankenstein.
Zoe Bleu plays Elisabeta/Mina. There is nothing inherently wrong with her performance, it is unfortunately placed in the wrong film.
Breakdown
Much of this film takes what was so brilliantly done in 1992s Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola, and tries to do its own thing… but struggled with finding its own identity.
From the 1480 opening where Vlad and Elisabeta are madly in love, and Vlad strangely foreshadows his own wife’s death. The reason I am so harsh on this, is that Elisabeta was a creation for the 1992 film. She was not in the novel, so everything here is less dramatic and more melodramatic! And poorly at that. It is a shame because Zoe Bleu does the best she can with a screenplay that is below par.
Vlad then spends hundreds of years pining his loss, unable to die. I’m not sure if Besson was going for vaudeville comedy in the trying to kill himself sequence, but I was laughing the whole time.
As the story goes, Jonathan Harker pays Dracula a visit in 1880 and Drac discovers his beloved is reincarnated. If you thought Keanu Reeves was a bad Harker, this film will go one better… or worse…
It also pays homage is too close to to FFC’s Dracula with the hilariously bad wig that was worn in the 1992 version. His companion CGI gargoyles for are an… interesting choice.
While FFC was able to show the length of time Harker was with Drac effectively and make his ordeal torturous, this plays out again almost comically, not too mention Harker’s journey to Drac and back again is said to be a matter of days… not months. There is a scene midway through the film where Mina mentions that Jonathan was with her at a wedding days ago, but by this stage he is being held prisoner by Dracula???
The character of Maria is a fun part of the film, as she is essentially the one who brings Dracula to Mina – and is also the vampire who Waltz Priest is wary of. Her character’s death sequence is one of the only real parts of the film with any gore – and it too is unintentionally hilarious.
Speaking on the lack of gore, this is a disappointment, considering there are several battle sequences throughout the film. Nary a drop of blood is shed…
The film seemed to forget its own mythos at times as well, as an early scene sees Maria almost burned alive by a small sliver of daylight, but moments later both she (and Dracula) walk around in daylight without an issue????
One big up is Danny Elman’s gothic score. His love of music is especially noticed during the ‘perfume’ sequence.
The emotional ending between Dracula and Mina sadly isn’t. For a film that stumbled all the way through its runtime, it missed the landing too.
Overall
Struggling to stand on its own two feet, it takes too much of the IP from Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula to be its own, from the make up, to the inclusion of Elisabeta – a character created for that film.
I laughed more times at the unintentional comedic moments, that Besson clearly never meant to be funny.
Adequete at best, with too many errors to ignore.
Loved Danny Elfman’s score though.
2/5
Please also check out my Podcast on Youtube, where we review a new movie every week! Please subscribe!
Ryan's Movie Reviews 