Preposterous! It was my sentiment when I heard about Abraham Lincoln being portrayed as a vampire hunter. With Timor Berkmambetov as the director, there wasn't much to think about this enterprise. With a movies like Wanted under his belt, you pretty well know this movie is all about stylized and unbelievable action sequences with cringeworthy dialogues. After seeing the movie, nothing has happened to change the notion. It is still preposterous with a lot of stylized action edited and shot cleverly to suspend disbelief. The suspension of disbelief never happens. You pretty well know you are taken for a ride.
Based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, Abraham Lincoln(Benjamin Walker) thirsts for revenge after his parents are killed by Jack Barts. While putting his plan for revenge in action, Abe comes to know Barts is a vampire. Luckily for him, help arrives in the form of John Sturgess(Dominic Cooper) who trains him to be a vampire slayer. Life goes on as we have known or read about Abe where he meets all the important people in his life like Mary Todd(Mary Elizabeth Winstead),William Johnson(Anthony Mackie), Joshua Speed(Jimmi Simpson) -, the difference being except all events are centered around vampire hunting. Years later, during the civil war, the decisive battle of Gettyberg is also painted as a battle between humans and vampires where the latter group is led by a vampire named Adam(Rufus Sewell).
Despite the ridiculous premise, Timor manages to hold our interest at places. The first is the choice of Benjamin Walker to play the lead role and his transformation into Abraham Lincoln. Though he posses a great similarity to the historic figure, it is the transformation as aged Lincoln that is noteworthy. Then there are two action pieces which are commendable. One is the fight between Lincoln and Barts where the latter flees using a herd of cattle to fight stealthily with his assailant. The cattle is running. They are both climbing, riding and jumping on the back of cattle as if there were stationary objects. The second action piece is the climactic fight on the train. It is interesting. On the flip side, there is too much blood and decapitation in the movie.
The action scenes are watchable. But I will only recommend watching those on the DVD.
Language: English
Genre: Action
Rating: **
hmhm- the trailer was pretty captivating and I do bet that it will be better than Ghost rider spirit of vengeance, which was horrible.
ReplyDeleteWill work for you if you are an action junkie. The Ghost Rider was indeed horrible. I saw it and I was too tired to write a review.
DeleteJust curious. Was the dialogue still cringeworthy?
ReplyDeleteThey were at times. :)
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