• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Watching Bram Stoker's Dracula reminded me that modern movies lack artistry.

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
What an amazing movie. Even Keanu, while not good, was not as bad as I was lead to believe. This movie is top-notch. I always assumed that it was a bad movie based on how dumb the hair on Dracula looked (it does look dumb). But the movie is phenomenal. One of the best dark fantasy movies I've ever seen.

- Gary Oldman was wonderful as Dracula. Seductive but abusive. Charming but creepy. Wonderful
- Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing.... man... my new favorite portrayal of the character. Wise by crass. Skilled but flawed. You can tell Hopkins was having fun as the vampire hunter.
- Cary Elwes is dashing as hell
- The production design was incredible. It was Victorian dialed up to 10. Almost steampunk-ish. Really elaborated the Gothic nature.
- The cinematography.... Man, I miss when movies were interesting to look at. So many visually interesting shots. Modern movies phone this in. It is one of the biggest advantages films have over other mediums yet modern filmmakers ignore it.

- The soundtrack... Wtf was going on here. So creepy and bittersweet. How come movies don't have good scores anymore.

Where is the pride? Where is the passion?
 
Last edited:

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
What an amazing movie. Even Keanu, while not good, was not as bad as I was lead to believe. This movie is top-notch. I always assumed that it was a bad movie based on how dumb the hair on Dracula looked (it does look dumb). But the movie is phenomenal. One of the best dark fantasy movies I've ever seen.

- Gary Oldman was wonderful as Dracula. Seductive but abusive. Charming but creepy. Wonderful
- Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing.... man... my new favorite portrayal of the character. Wise by crass. Skilled but flawed. You can tell Hopkins was having fun as the vampire hunter.
- Cary Elwes is dashing as hell
- The production design was incredible. It was Victorian dialed up to 10. Almost steampunk-ish. Really elaborated the Gothic nature.
- The cinematography.... Man, I miss when movies were interesting to look at. So many visually interesting shots. Modern movies phone this in. It is one of the biggest advantages films have over other mediums yet modern filmmakers ignore it.

- The soundtrack... Wtf was going on here. So creepy and bittersweet. How come movies don't have good scores anymore.

Where is the pride? Where is the passion?
Great film. Interview with a vampire was good an all.
 

tsumake

Member
Great movie (and book)

Modern movies are corporate trash by committee.

It's a symptom of a dead culture that hates itself.

A lot of the so-called “great!” mainstream movies are safe, sterile things that have pretty imagery to make you think you’re watching “art.”

Coppola gets a lot of shit these days for having the gall to self-finance his own movies, calling him ‘pretentious.’ But he makes what he wants to make. His latest films are fairly solid, even “Twixt.”

His kids however….
 

Soltype

Member
I just like the fact they had vision and stuck to it, and not only that it was not easy to adhere to. Same with Terminator 2, it was not easy to achieve what they did in 1991 but they stuck to it and made it happen.
 
Last edited:

SpiceRacz

Member
Visually stunning film and Coppola's last good movie.

Bram-Stokers-dracula.jpg


bram1.jpg


bram-stokers-dracula-0016.jpg
 
Last edited:
Plenty of independent films, while lacking the budget, provide plenty of artistry imho. Modern mainstream cinema is a husk though.
 

bender

What time is it?

I post this a lot but it is the single greatest Youtube comment ever.


W33B LORD1 year ago
I, for one, think it's amazing that a young British actor such as Mr. Reeves was capable of doing such a convincing California accent in Bill & Ted.

---

There is so much love, craft and care and the movie and then you have the Hollywood influence of "who's young and hot right now?".
 
Last edited:
i think there will be good movies but you just have to look out for directors who have an actual craft about them

quentin tarantino for example has a craft, a clear unique vision for how he wants to tell a story

i think movies today are primarily made to churn out money, like avengers and all that marvel shit.. those movies are formulaic, you can predict its tone and rhythm and humor from beginning to end before the movie begins (iron man 1 is an exception, and even edward nortons hulk)
 
Last edited:

thefool

Member
Coppola's Dracula is a weird one but it's hard to argue against how deliciously crafted it is.
There's certainly many skillful people working today, it's just like almost every other industry where industrial production saturating the market leads to less quality products. It doesn't help that many filmmakers have been losing influence and films constructed and targeted to specific groups drown everything else and are naturally limited.

When Coppola presented Apocalypse Now at Cannes he said a funny, cliched and presumptuous thing: "My film is not a movie". We had dozens of confident filmmakers who were able to be reasonably financed to make the movies they (mostly) wanted. We've lost the smugness of the great minds who were able to flourish in the industry.
 
Last edited:

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
I don’t like the movie that much, but yes, the cinematography is excellent and you have two absolute god actors like Oldman and Hopkins. And yup, Cary Elwes was one of the most dashing actors in Hollywood at the time, one who could do both comedy and drama and steal the spotlight in any role.
 

Amory

Member
I actually just watched it for the first time recently. I didn't like the movie very much, but I did appreciate that they had an artistic vision and committed to it.
 

tsumake

Member
Coppola's Dracula is a weird one but it's hard to argue against how deliciously crafted it is.
There's certainly many skillful people working today, it's just like almost every other industry where industrial production saturating the market leads to less quality products. It doesn't help that many filmmakers have been losing influence and films constructed and targeted to specific groups drown everything else and are naturally limited.

When Coppola presented Apocalypse Now at Cannes he said a funny, cliched and presumptuous thing: "My film is not a movie". We had dozens of confident filmmakers who were able to be reasonably financed to make the movies they (mostly) wanted. We've lost the smugness of the great minds who were able to flourish in the industry.

Heh. I used to bristle at the notion of the “auteur.” I hated the ego. Now we so many “humble” filmmakers it makes me gag. We build a hagiography around those who have faux humility, and people seem to value that more than the work.
 

RaduN

Member
My 13 years old self saw this movie back in '92 in theaters. Needles to say i had nightmares for a month...but the "good" kind if nightmares, the kind that feed one's starving imagination and ultimatelly enrich it.
Great movie, probably more appreciated today by those who want a homogenous vision in all aspects of the narrative, kinda like the stories that come from Hideo Kojima, deeply personal.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
What an amazing movie. Even Keanu, while not good, was not as bad as I was lead to believe. This movie is top-notch. I always assumed that it was a bad movie based on how dumb the hair on Dracula looked (it does look dumb). But the movie is phenomenal. One of the best dark fantasy movies I've ever seen.

- Gary Oldman was wonderful as Dracula. Seductive but abusive. Charming but creepy. Wonderful
- Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing.... man... my new favorite portrayal of the character. Wise by crass. Skilled but flawed. You can tell Hopkins was having fun as the vampire hunter.
- Cary Elwes is dashing as hell
- The production design was incredible. It was Victorian dialed up to 10. Almost steampunk-ish. Really elaborated the Gothic nature.
- The cinematography.... Man, I miss when movies were interesting to look at. So many visually interesting shots. Modern movies phone this in. It is one of the biggest advantages films have over other mediums yet modern filmmakers ignore it.

- The soundtrack... Wtf was going on here. So creepy and bittersweet. How come movies don't have good scores anymore.

Where is the pride? Where is the passion?
I think a focus on realism and reliance on CG has robbed movies of that majestic feeling that transported you in those worlds.

That said, there are some really great movies with that level of production design.

Blade Runner 2049 for example.

blade-runner-2049.jpg


blade-runner-20492.jpg


Blade-Runner-Still.jpg


Dune is shaping up to be a masterpiece as well.

Nolan and Villvenue are pretty much the only directors who are trying to use production sets over CGi in their movies and it shows. They get why people watch movies over tv shows. Sadly, Nolan is more about pushing realism so we dont get that kind of artistry from his movies. It's all very muted and grey and to be fair, Coppola also made plenty of those movies.

I think the biggest problem with the 2010s was the overreliance on comic book movies to push the AAA blockbusters. No one else was able to get that kind of money in the last decade. And lets face it, both Marvel and DC dropped the ball one way or another. Marvel with their Yes Man directors churning out movies like iphone revisions and DC just fumbling and tripping over themselves. Inception, Interstellar, Arrival, Gravity and Annihilation were the only scifi movies of the decade and they all skewed towards a more realistic setting.

Doesnt help that A LOT of A List directors had a pretty average decade Spielberg, Ridley Scott, David Fincher didnt exactly match their 90s and 2000s output, and Peter Jackson fucked up the Hobbit Trilogy and went missing.

I still think Mad Max, Blade Runner, Interstellar, and Spiderman Into the Verse are some of the most visually arresting movies I have ever seen. Spiderman Into the Verse in 4k HDR is a sight to behold.

Spider-Man-Into-the-Spider-Verse-Trailer.gif

miles-morales.gif
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
Check out red letter medias recent review of Dracula. They hit on a lot if the same points as yourself op. It's great.
 

tsumake

Member
I think a focus on realism and reliance on CG has robbed movies of that majestic feeling that transported you in those worlds.

That said, there are some really great movies with that level of production design.

Blade Runner 2049 for example.

blade-runner-2049.jpg


blade-runner-20492.jpg


Blade-Runner-Still.jpg


Dune is shaping up to be a masterpiece as well.

Nolan and Villvenue are pretty much the only directors who are trying to use production sets over CGi in their movies and it shows. They get why people watch movies over tv shows. Sadly, Nolan is more about pushing realism so we dont get that kind of artistry from his movies. It's all very muted and grey and to be fair, Coppola also made plenty of those movies.

I think the biggest problem with the 2010s was the overreliance on comic book movies to push the AAA blockbusters. No one else was able to get that kind of money in the last decade. And lets face it, both Marvel and DC dropped the ball one way or another. Marvel with their Yes Man directors churning out movies like iphone revisions and DC just fumbling and tripping over themselves. Inception, Interstellar, Arrival, Gravity and Annihilation were the only scifi movies of the decade and they all skewed towards a more realistic setting.

Doesnt help that A LOT of A List directors had a pretty average decade Spielberg, Ridley Scott, David Fincher didnt exactly match their 90s and 2000s output, and Peter Jackson fucked up the Hobbit Trilogy and went missing.

I still think Mad Max, Blade Runner, Interstellar, and Spiderman Into the Verse are some of the most visually arresting movies I have ever seen. Spiderman Into the Verse in 4k HDR is a sight to behold.

Spider-Man-Into-the-Spider-Verse-Trailer.gif

miles-morales.gif

It’s not about pretty pictures. “Dracula” drew upon the aesthetic of silent cinema and Expressionism. It fit the dark romanticism of the storyline.

There is far more visually arresting cinema out there.





Hell, for sheer art direction and set design, there’s “The Fall” by Tarsem:



Oh, and wasn’t BR 2049 a sequel?



Cronenworth did something truly special.
 
Keanu's performance enhances it. The contrast between him and Oldman elevates every scene they have together. The dinner scene is an all-time classic specifically because he's an Ambien zombie while Oldman unleashes the BLOOD OF ATTILA.


Hell, for sheer art direction and set design, there’s “The Fall” by Tarsem:



Tarsem, the world's biggest Parajanov fan.
 

DapperSloth

Member
Excellent movie, love the way it was shot and the grain and the usage of shadows and the movie looks wonderful.

While we are talking about movies that are mostly shit now, you can still find some gems now and then BUT... but... what the fuck happened to movie MUSIC? That shit can elevate a good movie to a fucking masterpiece of a movie. Just imagine having a 90's rock band soundtrack to Jurassic Park instead of that iconic John Williams soundtrack, shit would have bombed and sounded like a parody, a good soundtrack is that powerful.

Music nowadays sounds like shit. It's the same note repeated ad nauseum while having full orchestral score blaming constantly. I don't remember a single note from a MCU movie. Horror movies though still have some good soundtracks. Where are the iconic sounds, themes like Jaws, Halloween, Jurassic Park, Avatar, Blade Runner, Casper, Balto, Bicentennial Man? That shit you hear you get goosebumps from. Or music like The Lion King and Prince of Egypt, that shit was tight as a butthole.
 

tsumake

Member
Excellent movie, love the way it was shot and the grain and the usage of shadows and the movie looks wonderful.

While we are talking about movies that are mostly shit now, you can still find some gems now and then BUT... but... what the fuck happened to movie MUSIC? That shit can elevate a good movie to a fucking masterpiece of a movie. Just imagine having a 90's rock band soundtrack to Jurassic Park instead of that iconic John Williams soundtrack, shit would have bombed and sounded like a parody, a good soundtrack is that powerful.

Music nowadays sounds like shit. It's the same note repeated ad nauseum while having full orchestral score blaming constantly. I don't remember a single note from a MCU movie. Horror movies though still have some good soundtracks. Where are the iconic sounds, themes like Jaws, Halloween, Jurassic Park, Avatar, Blade Runner, Casper, Balto, Bicentennial Man? That shit you hear you get goosebumps from. Or music like The Lion King and Prince of Egypt, that shit was tight as a butthole.

Crude, but a fair point.
 
Visually, the movie is outstanding. Story wise, it's all over the place. Acting is pretty rough on most accounts, excluding Gary Oldman. Keanu is just such a cool guy, and that's why he gets a pass in this movie. Not a very fun movie to watch, but it's intriguing. If only they could have delivered on the great story that is Dracula. It's different from the book, in some interesting ways. However, when I read the book, I was awe-struck. When I watched this movie, I was confused.
 
Top Bottom