I can't go lower than 3 stars because ever since "Alexander" (2004) I've had a tiny crush on Jared Leto, and some of the trails for this made him look swarthy and hot too. To be fair, also, he is not afraid of spending a great deal of time in the make up chair, as we saw in "House of Gucci" (2021) and frequently see here. Sadly, though, after my appreciation of Jared's eye candiness wore off, what I was left with was Luke Evans' "Dracula Untold" (2014) just without Charles Dance, and a hint of "Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (from 1931). The imagery is fine, the film looks super - but so what. Marvel/Columbia should be doing that anyway. It's the story. It's so thin. Matt Smith is lightweight at the best of times, and together with Adria Arjona's really unremarkable contribution as Leto's sidekick "Dr.Bancroft" and some sparing interventions from the other Jared in this film (Harris) this all just lollops along as if it were just the money-no-object pilot episode of a drama series that will struggle to get a commission. I love the genre, but the words barrel, bottom and scraped came to mind pretty early on. Sadly the handsome Mr. Leto reminds me of Eric Bana - very easy on the eye but not good enough to carry a film.
