I was rather interested to see what this movie would be about. I had heard a book existed and seen the movie posters but that is about it. I think this is the first movie in a while that I have seen without seeing any previews for it. I thought the poster looked kinda cool (great reason to see a movie right?) so I wanted to go.
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter isn't a bad movie and it isn't a great movie. It was entertaining to watch but there were parts that made me think "Really? you couldn't have done it a different way?". Specifically a "chase" scene that between Abe and a vampire that takes place in a running pack of horses. I can't think of any words to describe that sequence, other than bizarre.
If you are not familiar with what the storyline is, the title rather gives it away. Abraham Lincoln is a Vampire Hunter. That's right the 16th President of the United States was a Vampire Hunter, or so the movie proclaims. Good ole' honest Abe (Benjamin Walker) witnessed the death of his mother at the hands of a vampire. After his father dies, Abe wants to seek vengeance on the vampire, Jack Barts (Marton Csokas) that killed his mother. While trying to kill Barts Abe runs into Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper), who becomes Abe's "Vampire Hunter" mentor and ends up actually being a vampire. Henry sends Abe vampire "hits", but it eventually starts to conflict with his love interest in Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Eventually the movie progresses to Lincoln's time as President, the Civil War, and Gettysburg. Basically, it comes to that the vampires played a role in the Civil War and without using "silver" weapons at Gettysburg, the North would have lost the battle of Gettysburg.
I thought the overall acting of the movie was good. Prior to seeing this movie, I had never seen the actors in anything. I think I was most impressed with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, as Mary Todd Lincoln and Dominic Cooper as Henry. I thought both did a really good job getting into character, especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I think one of the best scenes in the movie was when her son, Willy was dying and she realized Honest Abe was not so honest as she thought. He had been lying to her about vampires and his vampire hunting.
I thought the appearance of Abe was a not as haggard looking as some pictures that I have seen portray him as, but that really doesn't make or break the movie in this instance.
I found one fault in the storyline. Abe did tell Mary about his vampire hunting, during their courtship; however, she brushed him off that he was kidding etc. When their son was dying and she was upset with Abe about not saying anything about the vampires, it wasn't like he hadn't tried. Her anger was understandable, but really maybe she should have been wiser.
On another note, I looked up the book version and it seems to be similar to the movie, but a little different, specifically the ending. I think I will be checking it out soon.
If you take the movie for what it is worth, I think it's pretty good. I'd It is better than some of the other movies that I have seen recently. I wouldn't buy it or anything; however, I would probably consider watching it again if it was on Netflix or something.
I so need to see this. It definitely looks like my kind of movie. My coworker said the book was kind of ridiculous because it was like a biography but they would add parts about vampires. I'd like to see how the movie compares to her description of the book. I bet it's better than the book actually. For once :)
ReplyDeleteIt was ridiculous but a good kind of ridiculous. Even though history was re-written a bit, I liked the history part of it. Stuff like that interests me. I'm going to read the book next, I'll give you my take on it.
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