I
didn’t really know what to expect when approaching Odeon to watch this film.
Apart from laughing at my mates antics after walking there from the pub from
that’s beside the point. I admit that I haven’t seen any trailers for this (In
fact, I saw a trailer on the television this morning, AFTER I had seen the
film), and I hadn’t read the book. When I was arranging the trip to the cinema
with the Whalley, I saw in my Facebook news feed that Film Brain posted a
review, saying “Four score and seven yawns ago”. That sounds good.
And
as the film started up, I kinda got that feeling. Quite a bit happened at the
start, with the young Abraham Lincoln (Lux Haney-Jardine) witnessing his
mothers’ (Robin McLeavy) death at the hands of vampire Jack Barts (Marton
Csokas), then the older Abe (Benjamin Walker) failing in his attempts at
getting revenge, and meeting his soon-to-be mentor Henry Sturgess (Dominic
Cooper). And yet despite this, I was starting to feel bored and uninterested.
Thankfully
though the film really picked up, though some may find the pace was too fast,
glimpsing over the origins and the training rather than fully explaining it. To
be honest though this didn’t affect me that much.
The
characters are interesting, I will say that. They really did a great job mixing
in Abraham Lincoln’s true history as well as the fictional vampire hunting
background. Adam (Rufus Sewell) came off as a sophisticated yet dangerous
individual, even if he didn’t really seem to have an evil plan. Oh he had an
objective, but until the American Civil War started he didn’t really have a
plan to reach that objective. Joshua Speed (Jimmi Simpson) I wasn’t too sure of
at first but once his initial scene was finished I had changed my tune. Will
Johnson (Anthony Mackie) was portrayed as a great friend for Abe and Mary Todd
(Mary Elizabeth Winstead) was a pretty good love interest. Vadoma (Erin Wasson)
I felt could have done more, but she was still an okay villain. Henry Sturgess
was actually my favourite character, he was interesting, he was noble, he was
useful, he was just a great character. Even if it was obvious that he was a
vampire.
But
probably the main reason I liked these characters is because of the acting. The
cast do a really great job in their roles. Cooper was probably the best actor
in the cast, portraying Sturgess was like second nature to him. Walker did a
great job at Abraham Lincoln as he goes through heartache and love. The
supporting cast also gave great performances, though, as stated, Wasson could
have given a better performance, while Winstead did seem bored at times, but
still gave a stellar performance in other scenes.
The
effects, really could have been better. In the film’s defence the bridge on
fire effect was actually really good, but then everything else just seemed so
fake, from the horses to the trains, while the slow motion was mainly used in
the wrong spots. Then again what can I expect from Timur Bekamambetov, the
director of ‘Wanted 2008’?
Finally,
we have the story. Haven’t not read the book I don’t know how well adapted it
truly is. Then again I did see the film with two people who had read the book
and, while they said the action scenes were more extravagant and some details
had changed, it was still a faithfull adaptation.
I
see online some people have complained about the film, some saying “didn’t they
read the book?”, well, I’m pretty sure the guy who wrote the adaptation script
read the book, BECAUSE IT’S THE SAME GOD DAMN PERSON! Yeah! Seth Grahame-Smith
wrote both the book AND the screenplay!
The
main problem people find with this film, is that they didn’t find the film
funny. That the title gave them the wrong idea, that the people behind this
film took it too seriously. And unsurprisingly the people who say this is say
they haven’t read the book. Neither have I, but I never thought the thing was
suppose to be a comedy, and after researching the film and book, neither are
regarded as comedies or sub-comedy. The film is regarded as a action, fantasy
horror, while the book is a mashup, horror, historical, thriller. So maybe
these people should watch this film as it was meant to be, A STRAIGHT FILM!
Anyway,
overall, I liked this film. Sure I hated the CGI scenes and the film isn’t a
masterpiece, but there’s really no reason why this is a bad film. The acting is
great, the action scenes (While hampered by CGI) are well thought out, the
characters are excellent, the plot flowed nicely, the mashup of fact and
fiction was fantastic, Hell, the makeup to make Walker appear much older was
brilliant.
So
give this film a go, but remember, think of it as a serious action film, not a
spoof.
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