Dracula Untold

Year of release : 2014

 

Run time : 1h32min

 

Genre : Horror / Action / Fantasy

 

Cast : Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Charles Dance

 

 

The movie is adapted from Bram Stoker's famous novel, Dracula.

 

Vlad the Impaler, is asked on Easter, by the Turks to pay their tribute in silver, and to give them 1000 boys to increase their armies,including Vlad's son.

 

Vlad refuses, and in order to defeat the great Ottoman army, he goes to Broken Tooth Mountain, where he knows a creature known as a vampire lives,taking the life of whoever ventures inside.

 

The creature gives Vlad his blood, and tells him if he feeds on human blood, he will become immortal,and the creature himself will be released from the cave into the world.

The creature can't stand silver as it weakens it.

 

Vlad accepts the rules of the trade,as the creature tells him that if he doesn't feed for 3 days,and resists the urge to drink human blood, he'll get back to normal.

 

Once back, he defeats the Ottoman Empire's army by himself. But, he can no longer stay in the sunlight, as the sun burns his skin.

 

I liked the visual effects, the way the movie was shot. I loved the fight scenes.

 

The actors were great. I liked the character Luke Evans created. His love for his wife,son and people.

 

I liked the soundtrack, I loved the fact at their Easter feast they play Romanian music!

The costumes also look like the Romanian ones at the time.

 

The movie,just like the book, didn't get anything right about Vlad Tepes,as he never paid tribute to the Turks, he always fought them, he was the ruler of Walachia, not Transylvania, Transylvania being at the time,under Hungarian rule( Matei Corvin's rule). Vlad Tepes is the one who created the capital of today Romania,Bucuresti, Bucharest.

People loved him,they called him Dragul,meaning the Beloved,Dearest.

The name Dracul,the devil,comes from the fact, Romania never had dragon lore, and romanians couldn't pronounce the word "dragon"( Vlad and his father were in the Order of the Dragon), which was his father's surname. Romania never had vampire lore.

The stories about Vlad's evil came from -- the Turks who were terrified of him,they called him Shaitan-the devil- due to the psychological war Vlad led in their battles;--and the Hungarians who,as a way for Matei Corvin to justify his reluctance to fight the Turks,blamed Vlad,saying he was a traitor ( Matei Corvin used the money the pope gave him to fight the Turks to pay for his wedding) .

Vlad's beloved one's name was Malina. He was married twice,the second marriage was a forced one, as the Hungarians made him do it(he married a Hungarian woman), and had 5 children.

His castle was Poenari, strategically built atop of a cliff.

Vlad was a "voievod" which in English is not translated as prince or king..

Vlad didn't kill innocents,he only punished the criminals, thieves..

 

The movie is streaming on Netflix, and is for rent or sale on Amazon, Apple, DirecTv, Google, Redbox, YouTube.

 

Rating : Worth a watch !