I have to admit that when I heard of the central idea behind Gary Shore‘s Dracula Untold–essentially the story of Vlad Tepes before he became Dracula–the first thing that crossed my mind was:  “Who cares?  People don’t watch Dracula movies for what he was before he became a vampire!”

Then again, Vlad Tepes isn’t just anyone.  What we know historically about the man is arguably as interesting as anything in Bram Stoker‘s novel, Dracula.  He was supposed to be a warrior of remarkable, in fact legendary, brutality and cruelty–impaling enemies on stakes was a particular favorite–and he was supposedly without mercy.

Dracula Untold appears to take a similar tact as Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 Dracula, namely treating the character as more of an anti-hero than an outright villain.

By the way, doesn’t Luke Evans look just like Doctor Strange?  Scott Derrickson‘s Marvel Studios movie hasn’t been cast yet (as far as I am aware) but he’s the splitting image of the character from the comics.