Some interesting moments, but self-indulgent and overwrought in all the worst ways.

Rating: 4/10 (22 October 2015)

I'm generally not a fan of Dracula adaptations that delve too deeply into his back story or focus on his human side, but of course that's entirely a matter of personal opinion. Our first introduction to Dracula, rather than the mysterious and menacing one we often see, is instead his back story, followed by a genuinely comical encounter with Harker in his castle. There's no buildup, it just drops us in amidst the bombastic music and crazy special effects that go far beyond mere foreshadowing. It's almost cartoonish. Give us some foreshadowing, build the tension until the moment Harker discovers the truth about Dracula. I understand Coppola may not have wanted to retread the same plot points that other adaptations have, but come on. I also wasn't a fan of some of the over-the-top visual elements, such as Dracula's shadow doing weird things all the time.
Gary Oldman does a good job with the interpretation of Dracula he was given, but never once is he anything close to scary; he's just silly. Hopkins's Van Helsing is equally ridiculous. I won't say anything about Reeves's performance. We...we all know.
The sound design is far too overbearing. What's with the random whispery sounds going on all the time? Is that supposed to be diegetic? If so then why isn't Harker freaked out by it? And if not, why is Coppola trying so hard to scare the viewers with silly things that aren't even part of what's happening in the film?
And then there's Mina. What a horrible, irredeemable character. The entire romance subplot was just awful, and it was far more disturbing than any evil act Dracula himself might do because it's just so wrong, and yet by the end we're supposed to feel something for Dracula and Mina and their relationship with its Love Conquers All conclusion? I don't think so. It's not a matter of hypnosis either; the film makes that pretty clear. Mina genuinely falls in love with this monster who eats babies and murdered her best friend and left her fiancé to die an agonizing death. Almost everything in this movie points to it being some kind of parody.
That said, it has some cool moments. There's a lot that is pretty faithful to the book - moments I haven't seen addressed in other adaptations - and it looks pretty great for the most part.
To boil it down to one complaint, I found the movie far too indulgent. Show some restraint; it works wonders in horror.