Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A HALF WAY DECENT VAMPIRE FILM, 29 Oct 2007
Several months after being defeated, the burned ashes of Count Dracula, (Stephen Billington) arrive at a morgue in New Orleans, and anatomy teacher Lowell, (Craig Sheffer) and his students Elizabeth Blaine, (Diane Neal) Luke, (Jason London) Kenny, (Khary Payton) and Tanya, (Brande Roderick) conduct a series of tests to see if it's really Dracula. While they're studying him, half vampire Father Uffizi, (Jason Scott Lee) who tracks vampires for a living, develops an interest in the experiments and begins to track them down. As the reborn Dracula begins turning them into vampires themselves, it's a race against time to stop him.
The Good News: This one wasn't all that bad and was a pleasant surprise. The decent pace to it meant that it pretty much stayed the same and knew when to throw in an action sequence to keep it upbeat. That goes a long way, and it really only has a couple of slow moments. It does tend to load up on action near the end, and the scenes there are it's best. The alleyway sequence is the clear highlight, with a clever jump, impressive weaponry on display, a nice smattering of gore, and a great conclusion. The revival is handled well and is a disorienting and hyper-active sequence that hits it right. The opening scene is pretty much right there along with it, setting it up the film with one of the best mirror gags in the genre that gets a great jump. The gore in here is pretty nice, not an over-the-top blood-feast but it makes what's there a little more potent. There's several decapitations, a couple of whip makes across the chest and back, a spiked arrow cutting open a throat and a face melting as holy water is poured on it. There's even some burned bodies after being set on fire to add to the gore. The clever use of more obscure vampire rules are fun and make an interesting twist to the story that offers a little creativity into the mix. This was a pretty interesting watch.
The Bad News: There's very little to complain about in this one. After an entertaining opening of the film, the middle section gets a little too slow for it's own good. Most of this is relegated to the discovering sequences when the vampire is trapped. All of the experiments conducted and the waiting around for results got in the way of the truly exciting vampire story around it. There's not a whole lot wrong with them, it's just that they slow the film down when it should've just been let loose and really flew with abandon. Most of this is due to the fact that the main vampire, Dracula, is tied up and bound to a single position for the majority of the film, and only at the end is he actually freed. Not having it's main source of horror there to do what it does best makes the middle largely hard to get through, with the only sparingly action scenes keeping it awake. That's really the only two complaints against this one.
The Final Verdict: A rather interesting concept done with a fun-loving atmosphere, it's really not all that bad. It's a rather entertaining film with a few slow moments in an otherwise fun film. Worthy of a look for fans of the first one or the more serious minded vampire fans.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Be dust already!, 9 Jul 2007
The sequel to in my opinion the best Dracula movie since Dracula, the original went somewhere new and the twist was awesome and the ending was so final and resolved his issue against god in a touching way so why the need to make these two sequels? Did the guys who made these even see the first? These sequels have good FX and ok acting but to see it based soley on that is wrong the continuity is off too.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
dracula II The Ascension, 7 Jan 2008
I loved this film because of the story and effects. Only mistake was that in Dracula 2000 the first film in this trilogy, Mary Van Helsing took the burnt corpse and locked it up in a vault. Now in this one the corpse turns up at the morgue? Apart from that very good and acting superb.
|
|
|
|