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Sunday 8 July 2012

REVIEW/THOUGHTS [Movie] -- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Format Watched: In theatres (Saturday, July 7, 2012)
Approx. Runtime: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
Language Watched: English
Type of Movie: Action, Historical (semi), Horror
Overall Impression: Ridiculous concept for a serious movie. I enjoyed it.


PERSONAL STANDING (Pre-exposures, thoughts, etc.)
My first exposure to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was this trailer:


 When I saw that trailer, all I thought was: what the heck?! Why is Abraham Lincoln being used here as a character, to hunt vampires? Does this movie need that kind of historical element? Frankly, I thought it was ridiculous. A historical figure... hunting vampires.

I wrote it off, deciding not to watch it. Then about a week ago, I saw this photoshopped image floating around on Facebook:

In case you don't know, the one being chased is Ed from Twilight.

I've never watched Twilight, but I found the image sooo funny. Thanks to that, I decided to give it a chance.


STORY
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter follows Abraham Lincoln (obviously) from boyhood to adulthood. In those years, he gets recruited by Henry Sturgess to become a vampire hunter. Abraham agrees, mainly wanting to avenge his mother's death (she was killed by a vampire).

Later on, Abraham decides to put his vampire hunting activities behind him and pursue the abolition of slavery. The vampires, though, want him and essentially his ideals destroyed.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY / ROLE OF THE VAMPIRES
There were a few historical moments, like Abraham rising to presidency. I imagine they would be accurate (date-wise), so some won't complain about it. The vampires, though, I'm sure were NOT historically accurate.

Even so, the vampires played a huge part in driving the story and shaping Abraham's character. The nice thing is that it meshed well -- the vampires did NOT seem like some tacked on idea.

TONE OF THE MOVIE
Contrary to the concept being ridiculous, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter presents itself as a dark, gritty, and serious movie. As far as I remember, no jokes or anything were done during the whole thing -- and I liked that. Even though I was kind of expecting some ridiculousness (well, the horse scene was kinda ridiculous, but I found that more cool than anything else), I was quite happy that it didn't go that route. Since the movie took itself seriously, I was able to take it seriously.

That said, anybody going in expecting comedy / parody / anything ridiculous will be greatly disappointed -- so don't.


ACTING/CHARACTERS
The acting was good! I have no beefs here.

CHARACTERS
I think considering Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter just adds flavour to his character (it has a nice ring to it). It also gives him a conflict to explore: who does he want to protect most? The people? Or those he loves most? Unfortunately, he is the most fleshed out of all the characters. We don't get much backstory or information on the other characters. We get to see a bit of Henry's backstory, but not enough.

The vampires' lore here is kinda interesting. I think they're still weak to sunlight here, but they deal with it the way humans would deal with sunlight (didn't even notice that until after the movie ended and I was discussing it with my sister and her fiance). There are no wooden stakes here -- they're weak against something else. They also don't turn into bats -- they turn into something else.


MUSIC
The music isn't memorable, but it works. It doesn't detract from the scene -- it heightens it.


ACTION SCENES / VISUAL EFFECTS
I think there were some cool action scenes. I gotta warn you, though: this movie is really bloody. There are a lot of slowdown scenes of vampires getting chopped / stabbed and blood splattering everywhere.

There weren't much visual effects used (unless you count the blood splattering -- I think those were visual effects). What they did use were used well.


CLOSING THOUGHTS
I enjoyed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I would recommend the movie as long as you do not expect it to be a comedy (of any sort). This movie is serious through and through. I haven't yet read the novel this was based off of, but when I do, I will update this blog to include my thoughts.

Thanks for reading! If you want some more input about something I didn't cover, feel free to ask. :)

Normally, there would be a "Spoilers" section, but I think I covered everything I wanted to talk about.

3 comments:

  1. The picture of Edward being chased is priceless!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope he catches him too.

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    Replies
    1. I saw a photoshopped image of Ed getting caught, but I found it less hilarious than the one I posted above.

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