Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter produced by Tim Burton in the works

[Temis the Vorta]

EW sneers at Abe's buzz building mojo, but predicts twice the BO of Steve Carrell's opus.

1. Brave – $53 million
2. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted – $17 million (-50 percent)
3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter – $15 million
4. Prometheus – $9 million (-55 percent)
5. Rock of Ages – $7.3 million (-50 percent)
6. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World – $7 million

[Temis the Vorta]

Counter-programming (against a kid-skewing Pixar hit and rom-com) may have paid off: Abe is doing better than expected.

Meanwhile Twentieth Century Fox’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is looking to open around $20M-$22M – and $25M at best. That’s much better than the tracking has been on this bizarre horror history mashup from producer Tim Burton and director Timur Bekmambetov based on the novel and script by Seth Grahame-Smith. That includes $701,261 in midnight screenings from 1,168 locations. (“Pretty good number, same as Cowboys & Aliens,” a Fox exec stresses to me. And C&A was a much costlier film…) Interesting that this Lincoln: Vampire Hunter high-concept 3D pic (in 3,106 theaters) with no stars will do way way better than the openings of Tom Cruise’s PG-13 Rock Of Ages and Adam Sandler’s R-rated That’s My Boy which both flopped last weekend.

Brrr...don't mention Cowboys & Aliens!

[The Wormhole]

So, are we using this thread to discuss the movie? Srew it, we are now.

An excellent movie, if I do say so myself. Pretty damn cool throughout with some rather creative action scenes. On in particular, Lincoln is fighting a vampire among a rampaging stampede of horses. The vampire actually lifts up a horse and throws it at Lincoln. Seriously, when was the last time anyone saw shit that cool in a movie?

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of historical accuracy. Before you start going "how accurate do you expect a movie about Abraham Lincoln fighting vampires to be?" let me explain. The book is is remarkably accurate to historal facts. As I've explained before, it's basically Lincoln's biography as well as an account of the events that went on throughout his life, that just happens to have vampires inserted into it, and they are inserted in such a way that you would think they were real. The movie is rather liberal in its depiction of history, most glaring of all Lincoln's family. Particularly, how many children he had. This is done for obvious needs of the story and really it's no worse than most movies based on actual historical events/people, but I find it jarring.

There was actually alot of material from the book left out of the movie that I thought would have been great additions. For the most part, I understand why this is, the book would have been unfilmable were it faithfully adapted. And while the book is basically Lincoln's life story, this movie is really just his beginnings as a lowly vampire hunter moving onto his time as President when he fought against them in war And really, there's enough there to fill one movie, so I can accept other stuff left out. Still all this said, I would have loved it if the book's actual epilogue were included in the movie. It almost seemed as though they were going to do a variation on it in the movie's actual final scene, but they went in a different direction with that. The scene itself is a fitting bookend to the movie's beginning.

Historical accuracy and faithfulness to the book aside, this movie is really cool with and great entertainment. I definately recommend it and rate it 9 out of 10.

[DarthPipes]

The film was utterly ridiculous but somewhat hilarious.

-Rufus Sewell continues to be awesome in whatever he's in. I enjoyed his performances in John Adams and The Illusionist and enjoyed him here.

-Benjen Stark is Lincoln's father!

-Alan Tuderyk is Stephen Douglas. As I recall, Mary Todd was his ex-girlfriend.

[Dorian Thompson]

Richard Roeper, formerly of Ebert and Roeper at the movies, loved it. He warns that people going in not expecting it to be big, brash, and over the top are missing the point as are some critics who are taking it all too seriously, that both groups are bound to hate it. He gave the movie a B+ and called it great fun. Finally, a critic who notices the astonishing resemblance between Ben Walker and a young Liam Neeson. Something about his stature and the bone structure of his face.

[DarthPipes]

Yeah, I thought Liam Neeson a lot when I saw the film. I can see why Spielberg was trying to cast him forever in his long-talked about Lincoln movie.

[Psion]

I liked the movie. I'll give it a solid B. Visually, the film felt off for a lot of scenes, but Ben Walker did a great job with the Lincoln character.

I would like to have seen more of Adam's background. As the chief antagonist, he came across as a bit sketchy. But I got a kick out of the character and his ambitions.

Apparently, there are differences between the book's ending and the movie's. I'd say that I would have loved the book's ending ... I turned to my wife near the end and whispered, "Hey, I wonder if Henry will [spoilers]"

I saw it in 3D, and as I said, the film didn't work well visually in some scenes. Many were murky and hard to make out details. That's to be expected in a vampire flick, but much of it felt low budget. The 3D gags were mostly tired, but they played with the concept; including bats that flew away from the camera instead of towards it, and distracting dust particles that slowly drifted around in dialog-intensive scenes.

Glad I saw it. Worth the money. Will eventually own on disc. Will probably read the book now.

[Temis the Vorta]

Deadline's done an about-face on their BO predictions. Sadly, not as good as expected (17M for the weekend). Everyone who wants to see this puppy, get to the theaters now! (I'll be going in a few days.)

[Gaith]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

---

Deadline's done an about-face on their BO predictions. Sadly, not as good as expected (17M for the weekend). Everyone who wants to see this puppy, get to the theaters now! (I'll be going in a few days.)

No, people, listen to io9, and don't bother!

A film like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is fascinating because it takes our claim that we're "over slavery" at face value — since we've all gotten over it, and it's no longer an issue, let's make a silly-but-taking-itself-kinda-seriously action movie about it. And yet, somewhere along the way, the makers of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter probably realized that Americans really haven't gotten over slavery and the Civil War as much as we like to claim. Hence the fact that this film is really choppily edited — you get the sense that key scenes were taken out at the last moment.

Anyone who wants to see quite how wrong and pointless vampire stories can get should definitely rent Abraham Lincoln at some point. If your friends do drag you to this film in the theater, though, a bit of advice — take a half-hour pee break when he becomes president. The movie literally drags to a halt once he's got the famous beard.

And in not bothering, also kill off any remaining life-signs of the rightfully comatose Pride and Prejudice and Zombies adaptation while you're at it!

[SG-17]

io9 sometimes goes overboard in their reviews. It did slow down when Lincoln got in the Oval Office but it certainly did not "grind to a halt".

I enjoyed the film. The action scenes were fantastic, the plot was a bit cheesy as expected, and the actors were fantastic. There were plenty of historical nods and jokes throughout the film, but there were a few deaths that happened too soon or too late that irked me.

Overall I'd give it a solid B.

[Peacemaker]

Yes, i09 is frankly full of shit by stating the film "grinds to a halt" at that point. It does slow down, but that is because we move from straightforward action to more political intrigue. I guess the reviewer thought he would go on hunting vampires by night while President during the day.

I give it a B plus for the same reasons as Psion.

[DarKush]

I really enjoyed this film. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but overall I was pleased when the film ended. It wasn't perfect, but I liked how it mixed history and fantasy for the most part. The idea of vampires using the slave system to supply them with food was a pretty interesting idea and weaved them easily into the antebellum period. I also liked that the vampires had a distinctive look and an interesting power set that made them stand out from run-of-the-mill vamps.

The cast was good for the most part. I thought the guy playing Lincoln did a fine job. He reminded me of a young Liam Neeson.

The film wasn't without faults. I thought the two biggest action scenes could've been shot better to capture the action better. They were hard to follow. With the horse stampede there was way too much dust and too much CGI, which added to the overall improbability of the sequence. Plus I was surprised that there were canyons in Indiana or Illinois.

As for the big train scene at the end, I really found the action hard to follow when the vamps were first attacking the train. Way too much fog.

Other issues I had with the film:

-I thought the female assassin's last stand was way too contrived to just get Mary T. Lincoln into the action. It didn't make much sense for her to just stroll into the Union camp and then charge Mary head on, without even using her powers. And also why would she reveal herself to all of those soldiers? Up until that time the vampires had largely kept to the shadows.
-I thought Speed's betrayal could've been better thought out or written. It was like they were hedging on it. I wasn't sure if he really betrayed Lincoln or if it was all part of some plan of his to trap the vampires, of which he just didn't inform Lincoln? Maybe he was lying about that part, but the way it was played, Speed seemed concerned about Lincoln's well being on the train. But at the same time he seemed genuinely surprised that the train didn't contain any silver. I wish they had just made Speed a clear traitor. We had already seen his coolness to Will, and we had seen Lincoln's dismissive attitude towards him during his wedding to Mary. I could easily see Speed's jealousy of Will being something that could've led him to work with the vamps much earlier. In fact, I was expecting him to betray Lincoln when they busted up Adam's plantation get together.
-I thought the film's internal vampire logic took a hit during the train battle between Henry and Adam. Earlier, Henry couldn't get close enough to nick Adam with a knife, because vamps couldn't kill each other. However that didn't stop them from pummeling each other nearly to death on the train?
-Also, how did Henry get off the train, to be on the track just at the right spot to save Lincoln and Will?
-Not really a quibble, but I wonder what happened to Will at the end of the film? Why wasn't he at the White House with Henry or Lincoln at the end?

[stj]

Joshua Speed jealous? Lincoln sharing a bed with Speed for two or three years when they were young lawyers makes that relationship a centerpiece of the gay Lincoln claim. What's the subtext in the movie on this?

[SG-17]

I thought that it was obvious that Joshua Speed didn't betray Lincoln but in fact was a part of the plan to lure all of the vampires onto the train?

[Temis the Vorta]

So io9 says the movie is too slow, and LA Times says it's too action-packed, bloody and lacking in wit.

Screw it, I'll see it for myself and decide!