Some flaws and some outstanding aspects

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2020)

Must-see overall. The flaws: the first part is quite clunky, the script makes no effort in trying to make things believable or coherent. Reeves is awful (he is nominated for the worst miscasting ever). Van Helsing is quite annoying, dull character and over-the-top at the same time. Some outdoor scenographies and lighting are absymal (Coppola choose to shoot everything on stage to avoid production delays). Some dialogues are silly, the XIX century language sounds weird at times. Some visual effects in the first act look quite dated and ridiculous.
But once the story gets going, most of these shortcomings disappear. Seems like Coppola spent all of his effort on the second and third act. The pace becomes faster. There are several jumps forward in time that help build a tragic/romantic/oniric atmosphere. The show is stealed by Ryder (perfect in acting her possession and dilemma) and Oldman. Oldman is a force of Nature: dramatic, empathic, pompous. Their love story is outstanding, spanning four centuries on the notes of a dedicated musical theme. Dracula's character becomes deep and human. The ending is well conceived. Meanwhile, Coppola starts showing his best visual effects one by one - both camera effects and prosthetics. Dracula is a powerful, mesmerizing presence, in each of his many shapes: impeccably elegant englishman, creepy old man, haunting beast. Visually the movie reaches its height during the final scene outside of the castle, that is a thing of beauty. Overall, the movie is a powerful, baroque and truly romantic narration of a XIX century tale.