Drácula

Besson grabs hold of Dracula and tries to give it a romantic spin-think Romeo + Juliet drenched in hemoglobin. On paper, fine. On screen? It feels more like a Wattpad fanfic crossed with a Cartier commercial. The prince of darkness loses his wife, renounces God, and becomes a vampire... except instead of being a vicious, tormented predator, he spends the film whining like Anakin Skywalker every time he loses Padmé.

Caleb Landry-Jones as Dracula is like casting Michel Drucker as Conan the Barbarian: it makes absolutely no damn sense. He's got the face of a guy selling metro tickets, not an unholy lord of the night. Christoph Waltz does his usual Waltz routine, but in "Friday paycheck mode," while the actress playing Dracula's eternal love overacts so much you'd think she graduated from the Shia LaBeouf School of Overdoing It.

Between the photo being tossed around like a soccer ball and the random gargoyles popping up with zero explanation, you can tell Besson dropped the pen after three coffees and finished the script freestyle, like a teenager on a Red Bull binge. At this point it's less a vampire's curse and more a Ubisoft glitch.

To be fair, visually there are a few sparks. The horseback ride in the snow, the shots of a decrepit old Dracula-you can tell the cinematographer put in work. But copying Coppola with nice makeup is like cosplaying Darth Vader with a mask from Wish: it impresses for two seconds before everyone realizes it's reheated leftovers.

The real issue? Dracula has zero darkness. The guy is supposed to embody sin, lust, the demonic... and here he's got all the charisma of a Twilight extra. Even Edward Cullen, sparkling like a disco ball, had more bite than this neutered immortal. Besson pulled off the impossible: he made Dracula boring.

In the end, Dracula: A Love Tale is like a kebab without sauce: it looks appetizing, but leaves you unsatisfied. Besson wanted to reinvent the myth; he just watered it down. A few shots keep it from collapsing completely, but with a botched cast, grotesque inconsistencies, and a Dracula stripped of menace, the result reeks of roadkill. Honestly, just rewatch Coppola's classic-or even Netflix's Castlevania. At least there, you feel the vampire's hunger.

It takes real nerve to tackle Bram Stoker's most-filmed anti-hero in 2025. First, the role has already been immortalised by everyone from Bela Lugosi to Gary Oldman, so comparisons are savage. Second, gothic horror sits miles away from Luc Besson's usual playground of kinetic sci-fi (The Fifth Element) and neon crime capers (Léon). Walking in, I honestly wasn't sure whether we'd get an idiosyncratic triumph or a beautiful train wreck.

Happily, it's closer to the former. Visually, the film is a feast: swirling Carpathian blizzards bleed into candle-lit castle corridors, while Besson's trademark flair for colour and movement gives the vampire myth a fresh, almost operatic sheen. The cast meet the challenge head-on-Dracula himself is equal parts seductively reptilian and heartbreakingly lonely, and the supporting ensemble never drops the ball. I found myself grinning at several sly nods to past adaptations yet never felt trapped in pastiche.

Where the film stumbles is in the marrow of its story. The plot beats are solid but seldom surprising, and a mid-act detour about Dracula's centuries-old heartbreak lingers a few crimson drops too long. Trim twenty minutes, sharpen a couple of character arcs, and we might be talking instant classic. As it stands, Dracula is a very good film-bold, stylistically sumptuous, thoroughly entertaining-but not quite the genre-redefining masterpiece its ambition hints at.

Verdict: 7.5 / 10. Worth the ticket for the imagery and performances alone; just don't expect it to eclipse Coppola's fang-print on the legend.

Really enjoyed Luc Besson's Dracula. It's dark and stylish without trying too hard. Christopher Waltz was amazing, this could be expected. And honestly, the whole cast was just beautiful to look at. The visuals, the costumes, the mood... all of it was gorgeous. Definitely worth a watch if you're into gothic stories with a fantasy touch.

This film is utterly tragically beautiful. I must say that i havent been stuck on a movie for decades but this movie changes everything. It has some humor and will be for sure beloved by people who love dark romance. It hasn't been reviewed greatly because some people might find it bold, but i find it very artistic. Nobody ever took this kind of twists in Dracula movies. I think people are right now a bit thrown back by this twist but i can asure you to watch this movie and be impressed by it!

It's been almost 30 years since the last Besson film I was thrilled with. It was The Fifth Element, a daring, dynamic film by a brilliant madman... it was a long wait, but Besson is back. The cast is great, the performances are mostly Oscar-worthy, and his new in-house actor Caleb Landry Jones is a very good replacement for the unique Jean Reno. And he would be a great Joker in the style of Heath Ledger in the event of a prequel. A film with heart and soul made for the audience with an anti-hero who is hard to love, but can be understood, and can be sympathized with. I never liked Coppola's version of Bram Stocker's Dracula, and I really wanted someone to make a better version, but I really didn't expect that someone would be my favorite director from the great nineties (Nikita, Leon). I only hope that I don't have to wait another 30 years for a film this great. 10/10.