Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

When Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter began, I wasn't sure exactly what I would be getting.  I expected an awesomely bad movie.  For me, an awesomely bad movie isn't a bad thing.  They're films that are so bad but oh, so good, a movie like Piranha 3D or Jason in Space.*  As we got a bit of the way into Abe's film, I started to really dislike it.  By the middle, I was starting to be okay with it, feeling it a bit more.  By the end, I thought it was fun but 30% terrible.  The more I talk with Mark about it, the more I fall in love with it.  I'm going to do this review list style, as I think it's going to work better that way


Plot

• The Good - The story encompasses all of Lincoln's time.  Instead of picking out a small sliver of time and just altering that, the majority of Lincoln's life becomes impacted by vampires.
• The Bad - The plot is very, very predictable.  
• The Ugly - The film flashes back to earlier scenes twice; it was necessary neither time.  Generally, when a film flashes back to itself, there's a problem with the story, or the filmmakers assume we've all hit our heads since the scene in question.

Make-Up/Special Effects

• The Good - The aging effects for Abraham Lincoln are quite impressive.  The make-up is well done; I bought Benjamin Walker as Abe.  Good job, old chap!  
• The Bad - Save one character, all other age make-up was lackluster.
• The Ugly - The CG for the vampires didn't bother me, but there were some absolutely terrible horses running around.

Accuracy**

• The Good - A lot of historical figures show up.  
• The Bad - I imagine this would drive an actual historian up the wall.
• The Awesome - I am uneducated enough to not be bothered by it.  I recognized names but couldn't remember much about some of them.  

Style

• The Good -  Timur Bekmambetov*** chooses to filter the colors in a way that makes the film look older while still maintaining crisp and pleasant to look at shots.  He was also kind enough to resort to cheap 3D tricks, which I love!
• The Bad - He sometimes over-uses certain crutches, like smoke.
• The Ugly - For some reason, he thought it would be a great idea to constantly zoom in on the vampires faces and jack the music up, all while adding a pleasant hiss.  This was not a good idea; it was resorting to hack tricks.  You don't need to make the audience jump.  We know there are vampires, and constantly throwing this insulting combo at the audience served only to make me want to walk out of the theater.****

Actors

• The Good - Benjamin Walker does a good job with what he's got here.  He successfully conveys pop culture Lincoln.
• The Bad - There is a chick vampire, sister to the primary baddie, that is just terrible.  Whether it's what she was given or just who she is, it's painful.
• The Awesome - Alan Tudyk shows up in a bit part.*****

If you're going to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, see it with a friend.  It is much better when you can discuss the various, over the top moments with someone else.  Go in expecting dumb fun, and you might enjoy it.  If you go in expecting a masterpiece, you're gonna have a bad time.  That being said, I'm glad I saw it.

<<Here there be minor spoilers.>>

There is a scene in the film that Mark described as essentially the fight scene between Peter Griffin and the giant chicken.  If you see the film, you will know it when you see it.  During said scene, there is a moment that Mark and I agree would have happened in one of our old Deadland Games.  

It goes something like this:

-Ryan- Mark, what do I have to roll to throw a horse at Abraham Lincoln?

-Mark- I'm not sure.  Go ahead and roll a D20.  Toss in a fate chip too.

-Ryan- I botched, rolled a one.

-Mark- Well, you successfully threw the horse at Abraham Lincoln, but he caught it and is now riding it toward you.  He looks pissed.

<<End minor spoilers>>******

*For those of you out there using official names, that would be Jason X.


**Obviously, we are going to assume there were no vampires, so I won't be covering that particular affront to accuracy.  For the purposes of this movie and review, that little fact falls under our suspension of disbelief.


***He's the guy who directed Wanted.


****As most of you know, I hate jump out scares.  The fact that they were incredibly out of place in this film just made it worse.  Every time they did it, save maybe once, the audience was aware he was fighting a vampire.  It wasn't a surprise, so there was no reason to over-use this particular shot and sound duo.  Frankly, all other problems could be forgiven if it weren't for this.


*****He's amazing.  If you don't know who he is, I feel sorry for you.  Educate yourself!


******Needless to say, this is what made me love the movie.  It's exactly the type of thing that would have happened.