Dracula Untold 2014

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Most of the time, I found myself feeling like I was waiting for a turn with the gaming controls. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This Vlad the Impaler has all the edge of Vlasic the pickle. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: 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. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: 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. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: [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. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: This dull origin story about history's most famous vampire suggests some tales are indeed best left untold. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Neither the Dracula we need nor the one we deserve. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: 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." Read more

Kyle Anderson, Entertainment Weekly: It works neither as a sweeping historical epic nor as an action-horror hybrid. Read more

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: Much like the recent, widely reviled I, Frankenstein, this misconceived project mainly signals a need to go back to the drawing board. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark 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? Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: 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. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, 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. Read more

David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer: 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. Read more

James Berardinelli, 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. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Here we have a vampire movie that brings together elements from other more popular movies. Read more

Kevin C. Johnson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Dracula Untold" feels longer than its 95-minute running time. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Whatever possessed the makers of Dracula Untold to think we'd be interested in a tragically unhip romance that backstories the infamous bloodsucker? Read more

Brian Truitt, USA Today: 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. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: 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. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: 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. Read more