Re: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter produced by Tim Burton in the work
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
My Grade: B-
Of all of the summer movies this year this one is the one I was most perplexed about when it came to people's excitement and anticipation over it. The idea just sounded absurd to me and like something a couple of stoners would come up with while hopped up on shitty weed.
"What if you had, like, Abraham Lincoln, man. And he was hunting VAMPIRES! Dude?!"
But the way it was executed here... Wasn't too bad. The movie starts off with a young Abraham Lincoln witnessing his mother being turned one night -though she doesn't become a vampire and succumbs to whatever was put into her. He doesn't know it was a Vampire that killed his mother but he spends his adolescent years (post the death of his father) to get revenge for his mother and is startled to find out his actions did not kill the man. Luckily Honest Abe is saved at the last moment by a man who hunts vampires and recruits Abe as another vampire hunter. After training Lincoln goes to Springfield, Illinois, finds a job and attends law school all as a front to his vampire-hunting at night via post notes from his mentor. While working in a general store he manages to catch the eye of a young Mary Todd, posing a problem since as a vampire hunter he is to keep a low profile and have no personal relationships.
He courts Mary Todd anyway (SPOILERS!) while still seeking vengeance on the "man" who killed his mother so long ago, a man who leads a band of vampires living in the South.
The movie is interesting in that it follows this version from young-adulthood to his fateful night headed to Ford's Theater but at the same time the movie seems to missing a lot, a lot of stuff I can on presume can be filled in by the book. There's a couple large plot holes, dropped threads, and character changes that simply don't make much sense in the context of this movie.
The movie also is apparently way over-doing the 3D "throw things into the camera" thing, many scenes are filled with fine dust particles floating around and one action scene in particular involving a stampede of horses is particularly annoying to watch just in 2D, I can only imagine what it was like in 3D.
All of the actors turn in good performances (though I think the man who played a presidential Lincoln in "AL v Zombies" did a better job) especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead whom I didn't even recognize as Mary Todd, the movie also does old-age makeup light years better than what Prometheus did.
Overall it was a pretty decent, enjoyable movie. Better than I was expecting but sometimes full of itself in action pieces (in one scene in particular the image turns from vibrant colors, to dark muted tones, back to full color) with stuff flying all over and ridiculous action movies. I'll accept that a 20-something Abraham Lincoln can chop down a foot-thick tree with a single stroke of an ax. I cannot accept the way he was leaping around and keeping steady while jumping between a bunch of stampeding horses.
But, still, fun popcorn movie. Or queso blanco movie in my case.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
My Grade: B-
Of all of the summer movies this year this one is the one I was most perplexed about when it came to people's excitement and anticipation over it. The idea just sounded absurd to me and like something a couple of stoners would come up with while hopped up on shitty weed.
"What if you had, like, Abraham Lincoln, man. And he was hunting VAMPIRES! Dude?!"
But the way it was executed here... Wasn't too bad. The movie starts off with a young Abraham Lincoln witnessing his mother being turned one night -though she doesn't become a vampire and succumbs to whatever was put into her. He doesn't know it was a Vampire that killed his mother but he spends his adolescent years (post the death of his father) to get revenge for his mother and is startled to find out his actions did not kill the man. Luckily Honest Abe is saved at the last moment by a man who hunts vampires and recruits Abe as another vampire hunter. After training Lincoln goes to Springfield, Illinois, finds a job and attends law school all as a front to his vampire-hunting at night via post notes from his mentor. While working in a general store he manages to catch the eye of a young Mary Todd, posing a problem since as a vampire hunter he is to keep a low profile and have no personal relationships.
He courts Mary Todd anyway (SPOILERS!) while still seeking vengeance on the "man" who killed his mother so long ago, a man who leads a band of vampires living in the South.
The movie is interesting in that it follows this version from young-adulthood to his fateful night headed to Ford's Theater but at the same time the movie seems to missing a lot, a lot of stuff I can on presume can be filled in by the book. There's a couple large plot holes, dropped threads, and character changes that simply don't make much sense in the context of this movie.
The movie also is apparently way over-doing the 3D "throw things into the camera" thing, many scenes are filled with fine dust particles floating around and one action scene in particular involving a stampede of horses is particularly annoying to watch just in 2D, I can only imagine what it was like in 3D.
All of the actors turn in good performances (though I think the man who played a presidential Lincoln in "AL v Zombies" did a better job) especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead whom I didn't even recognize as Mary Todd, the movie also does old-age makeup light years better than what Prometheus did.
Overall it was a pretty decent, enjoyable movie. Better than I was expecting but sometimes full of itself in action pieces (in one scene in particular the image turns from vibrant colors, to dark muted tones, back to full color) with stuff flying all over and ridiculous action movies. I'll accept that a 20-something Abraham Lincoln can chop down a foot-thick tree with a single stroke of an ax. I cannot accept the way he was leaping around and keeping steady while jumping between a bunch of stampeding horses.
But, still, fun popcorn movie. Or queso blanco movie in my case.
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