"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" = Ridiculously Stupid Fun
With Rowan away visiting grandparents this week, Meg and I decided to head out for an evening on the town and catch a movie. As Meg is currently taking a week-long course on quantitative data analysis and statistics, she made it quite clear that she didn't want to see a movie that required her to think. So, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, it was. And what can I say? Sure, it's been trashed on RottenTomatoes, but 75% of the audience has enjoyed it, despite it getting only 36% positive reviews from critics. What I found interesting, as a history student (admittedly, I studied medieval history), is how much of Lincoln's actual life they put into the movie.
But how could they not? The film was about Lincoln's "secret" life as a vampire hunter, so it necessarily had to be based on his real life, and while they did alter a few details (William Johnson wasn't a child-hood friend, but he was in Springfield at the same time Lincoln was), and took some liberties with others, they kept the timeline very tight (as tight as they could given everything else that could have been put into the film if they wanted to make a four-hour epic biopic out of it). Some critics have blasted the overly serious tone of the film, but that is part of the joke itself, as Movie "Bob" Chipman points out, and if you can't see that, then maybe you should find a different movie to watch.
As for the historical revisionism accusations: "Oh no, its another movie where they demonize the South! How dare they do that when things in the North weren't so hot either!" I seriously doubt that this was the point of the film, intended or unintended, especially when you consider the ridiculous premise the entire book and film are based on: that Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter, and his fight with the south was not about slavery but about revenge. War with the South, ostensibly over slavery and the rights of slaves, was a way for Lincoln to attack the vampires openly and destroy the political structure that (unknowingly?) supported them. And note, not everyone in the South is portrayed as a being non-human; the vampires only offer to provide military support to the Confederacy because they were going to lose their legally sanctioned food supply if they didn't.
On the whole, this was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Yes, it is a bizarre premise, and some of the action scenes are so improbable that you just have to marvel at them, but it didn't ask for much. It was subtle, dead-pan, sarcastic humour, had decent effects, a relatively good musical score, a fairly decent cast (Rufus Sewel, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Alan Tudyk), and was produced by Tim Burton. I mean has Tim Burton ever been involved in anything that wasn't at least semi-decent? I mean other than Batman Forever and the remake of Planet of the Apes?
But how could they not? The film was about Lincoln's "secret" life as a vampire hunter, so it necessarily had to be based on his real life, and while they did alter a few details (William Johnson wasn't a child-hood friend, but he was in Springfield at the same time Lincoln was), and took some liberties with others, they kept the timeline very tight (as tight as they could given everything else that could have been put into the film if they wanted to make a four-hour epic biopic out of it). Some critics have blasted the overly serious tone of the film, but that is part of the joke itself, as Movie "Bob" Chipman points out, and if you can't see that, then maybe you should find a different movie to watch.
As for the historical revisionism accusations: "Oh no, its another movie where they demonize the South! How dare they do that when things in the North weren't so hot either!" I seriously doubt that this was the point of the film, intended or unintended, especially when you consider the ridiculous premise the entire book and film are based on: that Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter, and his fight with the south was not about slavery but about revenge. War with the South, ostensibly over slavery and the rights of slaves, was a way for Lincoln to attack the vampires openly and destroy the political structure that (unknowingly?) supported them. And note, not everyone in the South is portrayed as a being non-human; the vampires only offer to provide military support to the Confederacy because they were going to lose their legally sanctioned food supply if they didn't.
On the whole, this was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Yes, it is a bizarre premise, and some of the action scenes are so improbable that you just have to marvel at them, but it didn't ask for much. It was subtle, dead-pan, sarcastic humour, had decent effects, a relatively good musical score, a fairly decent cast (Rufus Sewel, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Alan Tudyk), and was produced by Tim Burton. I mean has Tim Burton ever been involved in anything that wasn't at least semi-decent? I mean other than Batman Forever and the remake of Planet of the Apes?