Cineanalyst
This is a poorly conceived and made updated version of Dracula in most respects, but most egregious is its blatant and repeated product placement for Virgin Records. Two of the main characters work at a Virgin Records store. They wear Virgin shirts outside of work. In one scene, as Dracula watches a music video, three Virgin logos are prominently visible in frame. Plus, the entire production is based upon selling garbage to young people, from the movie itself to the CDs sold in Virgin's stores, including the '90s rock and metal soundtrack for "Dracula 2000." Wes Craven, renowned for directing slasher movies directed towards young people, is advertised as the movie's producer. With the exception of Christopher Plummer (after "Nosferatu in Venice" (1988), appearing in yet another bad Dracula-related movie) as Van Helsing, the cast is infested with young-adult actors. Most of them are largely known from British and American television programs, which doesn't help a production that largely looks as though it were made for TV.The Mardi Gras scenes in New Orleans are pathetically claustrophobic--there's one small alley full of revelers that would make for a sad clip for "Girls Gone Wild"--and other scenes are wanting of extras. The vampires leap about, toss people around, perform acrobatics and spout one-liners like they're in an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The editing is choppy at times, with an especially bad edit during the bible scene at a library. Perhaps, the best thing going for "Dracula 2000," however, is that, especially after Dracula appears, it moves at a fairly decent pace, which is the least a movie so obviously inspired by the music videos its Dracula claims are "brilliant" should manage.As a reworking of Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula 2000" makes some strange and mostly regrettable alterations. I'm fine with updates, re-locations and a young cast, and I've seen all of those things put to good use in other Dracula movies. Van Helsing has even extended his lifespan beyond most mortals in another movie, albeit not by using leeches full of Dracula's blood. And I don't think he's ever fathered a child when he may've been well into his hundreds. This isn't the first time his daughter has been mixed up with the vampire after his resurrection, though. "Dracula 2000" in quite a few ways is reminiscent of "Dracula A.D. 1972," from its dated updated title, its extended battle between Dracula and the Van Helsings, to its focus on youth culture. Gerard Butler is but one in a long line of suave Counts that hardly resemble the Count of Stoker's book. Especially when he's walking around with his shirt unbuttoned, or getting looks from every girl in the Virgin Records store, or during his sex scene with Lucy, he seems to be specifically derivative of Frank Langella's 1979 romantic Dracula.Finally, the Dracula-Judas connection is just stupid, just like the rest of the movie's surprises. At least, I suppose, it's a change of pace from all of the Dracula movies that blow the Vlad the Impaler connection way out of proportion from Stoker's novel, where it comprised only the name "Dracula" and a couple sentences of speculation from Van Helsing. Stoker didn't even research the historical prince enough to locate him properly in Wallachia instead of Transylvania. But, still, Wallachia is far closer to Transylvania than is Judea, home of Judas. "Dracula 2000" pretends its Judas connection explains something of Dracula's aversion to Christian iconography and silver (the latter not included by Stoker), but ignores the gaping hole it digs leaving unexplained whether and why he'd, then, end up in Transylvania or why he'd travel to England.There are a few things to like here, though, besides the relatively fast pacing. The movie references Stoker's book and adopts the Lucy and, more briefly, Dr. Seward names from it, as well as Dracula and Van Helsing. On the other hand, renaming the Mina type, here Van Helsing's daughter, as "Mary Heller" is too on the nose in representing the character's dual natures. And the alteration of Bela Lugosi's famous line to "I don't drink... coffee" is admittedly funny.(Mirror Note: The movie also does a so-so job with mirrors. Dracula's lack of a reflection allows him to sneak up on Van Helsing in one scene, but it leads to the Count's entrapment by the doctor in another. Oddly, Dracula couldn't see through this mirror, but another vampire is able to see through a one-way mirror of an observation room. This Dracula's image also can't be recorded on camera or even be seen through a camera's lens.)
