What were they thinking?

Rating: 1/10 (27 August 2004)

**WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILER!**
I had a great deal of anticipation for this film when I bought the DVD today. I wonder where that could have come from, though; because I cannot imagine that anyone could find this film to be as great as rumored, I mean, its not even a good one.
Perhaps there is a bit too much of Anne Rice in me, but I couldn't take the whole part with the Count turning into a werewolf and all that. The mist and the regular wolf perhaps, but not the werewolf and certainly not that big bat-thingy right before they left London for Transylvania at the early end.
Also, what's with the whole thing with the count being old in the beginning but young in the middle of the film? Is he so vain (or cares so little of himself) that he doesn't find a reason to look young before he goes to London and spots Mina? Why would he want to become old and ugly in the first place, if he had the power to stay young?
Then we have the film itself. The lighting is awful! Somewhere along I thought that perhaps this was a joke, to make the film look as much as an old Italian horror film from the 1930's as possible, but in colour.
The red light in Transylvania is laughing stock, and when Keanu Reeves opens a chest and uses his candle to look into it, but the chest still being lit up when he puts the candle aside is among the worst I've seen.
The special effects are often pointless (Dracula's shadow, not doing the same as himself for example) or so bad that it just makes one laugh. Come on! They shot "Star Wars" 15 years prior to Dracula, but still SW has better effects! The only effect worth noticing really, is the sequences when wounds are opened or closed (such as Mina's burn on her forehead, or Dracula's chest wound that Mina drink from).
I thought that "Dracula 2001" was on the limit on what I call a good vampire film, but now I realize that it is one of the better ones, for "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is probably the worst vampire movie ever (despite all the great actors).
Anthony Hopkins does his character well, as do Winona Ryder. Gary Oldman does a great work as the Dark Prince, if one would want the character to be as it is (I surely won't, not after seeing how seductive Dracula was in "Dracula 2001"). Keanu Reeves is usually one of my favorite actors, but here he just seem lost. The accent and environment is just so wrong for him.
But then again, I may be wrong; there is probably too much of Anne Rice in me...