Dracula and The Curse of the 120 Minute Movie

Dracula Untold

Today I got Dracula untold, starring Luke Evans, and I have to say I'm pretty happy. The film is a background on the young Dracula and instead of making him the villain of the story, he is the hero of his people. While this may be hard for some people to swallow, just due to pop culture and what is considered the norm, I found it a refreshing take on an old legend. The film also stars Charles Dance, Game of Thrones, as the Master Vampire and I was happy to see the actor completely throw himself into the point where you stop seeing the monster and start hearing Tywin Lannister. The film actions sequences are well times and the special effects are well done and all in all the film was a solid 3.5 on a scale of five.

Why wasn't it a knock out? The curse of the 120 minute movie. What is that? That is the American ideal of what a film should be and the pace that most films take today. Filming a film in 120 minutes leaves plenty of room for action and CGI but very little time for character background and character development. Take the new film the Maze Runner. The film is too fast paced and you don't have time to understand the characters let alone identify with them. This is completely maddening to people who take time to read the books because as a result of 120 minutes the movie only hits certain high points and the vast majority of the books are left out. If anything that is my one complaint about Dracula. The character development is crap. You don't have enough footage to understand or identify with Dracula and then secondary characters are only there for a brief moment before they are killed, leaving you wondering why they were in the film at all.

I will say that by the end of Dracula you are hoping for a sequel which is where most films today are heading and maybe that is the cause of the 120 minute curse. Directors don't find the need to really build any story because they can just include it in the sequel or the prequel if need be and that's pretty sad.

If you want to rebel against the 120 minute film, look for such directors as Peter Jackson, Bryan Singer, JJ Abrams and Joss Whedon. These all stars take a few moments longer to build a story for the characters and for the audience that leaves you feeling satisfied and happy with what you just saw. Some of my favorites are the Lord of the Ring movies, Serenity, The Avengers, The Xmen films, and the Star Trek films. Granted is it not the norm to spend more than 120 minutes in a theater but it's worth it if you know the right director.

Just my thoughts
J.