A historical picture with a supernatural twist, “Dracula Untold” merges reality and fantasy to create an interesting and entertaining movie. Many have criticised it for deviating greatly from the source material but I would get bored seeing the same story again and again. The movie is almost a feature length version based on the opening scene from 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”.

In this movie, Vlad the Impaler (Luke Evans “The Girl On The Train”) faces a difficult challenge as the Ottoman Turks demand his kingdom give up a thousand boys in exchange for security and any form of refusal would result in war with the Turks. When Vlad refuses to meet their demands, he seeks to become a vampire so that his people may have a chance of survival.

Luke Evans does a good job as Vlad. In this version, Dracula does not merely become a bat to fly, he transforms into a swarm of bats. Dominic Cooper (“Warcraft: The Beginning”) plays Sultan Mehmed and he is okay. I enjoyed the performance from Charles Dance (“Last Action Hero”) as the vampire that transforms Vlad into Dracula. Sarah Gadon (“Cosmopolis”) is good as Vlad’s wife, Mirena. The other characters are fine.

While I probably would have preferred a regular Vlad the Impaler movie, “Dracula Untold” is still an entertaining film. The large battle sequences are a treat and I very much like the look and feel of the movie. I did not really care for the ending, which was clearly designed to set up a Universal Monsters universe (something that did not happen). If you want a more traditional “Dracula” movie then watch the 1931 “Dracula” or “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” but if you have seen those and want something different then “Dracula Untold” is worth checking out. Still, I do not get why we cannot have a regular movie about Vlad the Impaler, you think the success of films such as “Gladiator” would have opened the floodgates.