Dracula (The Movie)

The official title of the film is Bram Stoker's Dracula, but I'm not sure if it really is.  One argument for this being Stoker's Dracula is that there are lines the characters say that are right out of the book, which I really liked.  Much of the characters personalities are there.  But holy crap, there are a lot of boobies.

As I said in my review of the book, it had been many years since I watched the movie.  It was so long ago that I didn't remember a lot of it, just the general story.  Re-watching it, the movie came back.  I knew I remembered some sort of romantic storyline between Mina and Dracula.  A storyline which is absent in the book.  The movie gives Dracula a more romantic, tragic air, coupled with his viciousness, serves to make him a more sympathetic, even relatable character for cinematic audiences.

I understand that vampires are probably the most seductive and sexual of the supernatural creatures.  There is the sucking and penetration, much of which is in the neck area, an erotic area of the body.  There is also the romantic idea of being together for eternity.  In the book, Dracula's "brides" are fairly sexual, wanting, even craving Harker.  In transferring the characters from book to film, it seems that all the characters have had their sex drives ramped up to match the brides.  (However, compared to True Blood and other contemporary vampiric incarnations, the Dracula movie is not outrageous.)

I enjoyed the movie.  I think I enjoyed it more the first time, not knowing how it was going to end and without the book fresh in my mind.  It definitely has a dark and creepy air.  The scenery and sets felt a little more obvious this time, now that I'm used to big budgets and CGI.  The lunatic asylum threw me off too. (Were they really like that back then?)  It just seemed so wild and dirty, where in the book, everything felt more clean and organized. 

I really liked the atmosphere, with darkness surrounding the characters, highlighting just what was necessarily, creating an engaging mood and environment.  The actors were great, taking us back to seeing young Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder.  Also, Gary Oldman looks the same and it’s been ten years.  So does Anthony Hopkins, who is a good Van Helsing.  Also, I love Cary Elwes.  I’m not sure if I actually liked Winona Ryder as Mina Harker, though.  At least not the Mina from the book. 

I feel like someone is going to make another Drucula movie in the future.  I don’t think people can help making remakes/reboots these days.  The book is such a rich source material; I can see it constantly attracting people to it.

I’m not sure I like the end of this review/post.  But I don’t have anything else to say except, it was a good movie.  If you like vampires, you should watch it.