Dracula II: Ascension

This movie is `sold' as a sequel of `Dracula 2000'. The unique common point, besides the vampires, are the producer (Wes Craven) and the writers and director Joel Soisson and Patrick Lussier. The rest has nothing to do with `Dracula 2000'. The story has a good beginning in Czechoslovakia, with the vampire hunter Father Uffizi (Jason Scott Lee) chasing the Twins of Evil (Jennifer Kroll). His character is not well developed, but anyway his blood is contaminated by a vampire. Meanwhile, a group of students steals a carbonized body from the morgue for a research about life. Together with the handicapped Professor Lowell (Craig Sheffer), they bring a vampire back to life, keeping him chained and taking his blood for experiments, trying to isolate evil from the blood. Father Uffizi arrives in town chasing the vampire. This story has bad interpretations, a confused script and an important character (Father Uffizi) not developed. Jason Scott Lee seems to like undressing his shirts on the screen to show his body: his self-flagellation is ridiculous, and in `Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision' , he also undresses his shirts to fight against his opponent. Narcissism of his chest? My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): `Dracula II: A Ascensão' (`Dracula II: The Ascension')

Sequel to Dracula 2000 stars Jason London as Luke, a med student who finds the body of a vampire that turns out to be Dracula. Naturally all hell breaks loose and one giant set up for a third movie begins. Since the whole movie plays like one giant set up, it's hard to find much to say about the flick. Did I enjoy it? To some degree. It had some cool scenes (especially the finale, good stuff) and the actors did the best they could with the material, but for the most part, the movie was a major disappointment since I really enjoyed Dracula 2000. Despite my disappointment with this sequel, I will see the third picture when it comes out. I'm giving it 6/10 since it's really not a bad movie, just a disappointing one.

I love vampire films so naturally I had to see this one (Didn't care too much for Dracula 2000, though - I still gave it a try, though)..

It's a different movie, I'll give you that much. Don't misinterpret me as saying it's bad, but it's definately NOT - but it's just not what you'd expect.

Anyways, into vampire and horror pics you should still see it, nothing mindbreaking or anything like that, just good entertainment..

Oh sure, it won't win any awards, but b-movies never do. I'm not sure why the other users enjoyed the opening scene so much, but I enjoyed it for the incredibly bad stunts myself. I laughed out loud as the woman fell down the stairs, onto the landing, and kept falling down the rest of the stairs. Pure gold.

I also happen to know a little behind-the-scenes about this one. Do you know, it was not originally intended to be a straight-to-video release. It was originally scheduled to be released last October. I'm guessing the similarity to the popular Blade II sealed its fate. Do you know, they spent like 3 months or something filming in Romania? I'm not sure what for, considering the movie takes place in New Orleans. Why was Roy Scheider listed in the credits? His part was no more than a cameo. I was rather disappointed about that, because I really enjoy Roy Scheider.

But, for all intents and purposes, this is a rather good b-movie. There are expected, but fun, plot twists, and I never got bored. Well, maybe a little in the very beginning. It was a standard 5-man team of protagonists, a nicely evil Dracula, and a Blade-like vampire hunting priest. Note that I said nicely evil, and not deliciously evil. I will admit that it must be a great challenge for an actor to do most of his work with no lines and no movement (he spends most of the movie confined), but I really could have gone for a more evil Dracula.

I sincerely hope that people aren't renting direct-to-video movies with the idea that greatness lies within: it does not. What this movie does well is know its limitations. Special effects are only used when absolutely necessary, which makes them look much better than some of the really poor effects in Blade (the first one). It's fun, it's interesting, and it's got a good ending. Well worth renting.

Rating: Groovy

Dracula 2: Ascension (2003)

This movie had an interesting beginning, leaving off where Dracula 2000 ended with Dracula burning on the cross, but picked up different characters along the way, including two coroners who take the burnt body of Dracula at accidently bring him back to life while studying him. With a vampire-hunting priest (Jason Scott Lee) on their tracks, they must keep Dracula contained before he is unleashed and spreads more terror to the town of New Orleans. This movie was good, but towards the end, it didn't make much sense and didn't come full circle. It wasn't scary at all, but it had a bit of suspense and thrills. To enjoy this to it's full, you will probably have to be a hardcore Dracula fan. 7/10.