By the lake, the mist moves through the forest. The pregnant moon, weighted in the sky, drifts through the dark sky. Shadows play and consume each other, moving in the light cast in the forest's heart. And through these shadows moves one that casts greater than the others, consuming all others and uniting them in the light. His name is Abraham Lincoln, and his battle will unite a country from darkness itself. That's right, ladies and gentlemen! The Knight has returned with a new Spotlight! The Summer season is in full swing, and is the battle this season fierce! Marvel, Pixar, Warner Bros., and many more have brought their A-game, and the demand for your hard earned attention is strong. Today, I'll be taking about a well hyped film that isn't quite what you think, but is still worth it, all the same!
When he was a child, Abraham Lincoln's mother was killed by Jack Barts, a vampire his father is indebted to. As a teenager, Abe tries to kill Barts, only successfully wounding him before being saved by Henry Sturgess. Waking in his home, Abe beseeches Sturgess to train him to kill the man who destroyed his family, becoming a Vampire Hunter, whose patron is far more than he seems. Moving to Springfield, Abe goes to Law School and working in a shop by day, and by night hunting the enemies Sturgess directs him to. But as the world and the vampires (lead by the ancient Adam) make their move on the rest of the country, Lincoln moves from the dark alleys to the dark halls of the Senate, and the the Presidency, to fight for the freedom of all people. But with the Civil War upon them, the vampires support of the South and Slavery, and the death of his son Willie from a vampire attack, Lincoln is called back into battle in one last bid to scourge the vampire menace on Human Liberty.
Let me get this out of the way now: while entertaining, the film is FAR from perfect. Special effects range from "SWEET!" to "What the CRAP, man?!" in terms of polish. Whereas many practical effects are in play, there is an overabundance of Computer effects in play. For example, the vampire feature shifts play well (even giving us a phenomenal jump scare at Lincoln's first fight with Barts), and some of the kills are incredibly well played. but later when Lincoln goes after Barts in the middle of a horse stampede (giving me some deja vu to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron) the horses themselves are barely finished and draws you out of it almost entirely (even IF the vampire Abe's chasing DOES throw a fully grown horse at him). On top of the effects, the movie also jumbles it's time frame quite badly. From characters that had no association in real life, to quotes, passages from poetry, and technology that appears far too early for the time period, the film's script and pace belie the fact that it IS an adaptation of a Fantastical History tale. Timur Bekmambetov has fun with the film, but in all honesty, he plays it by the numbers. This isn't his best film, nor is this his worst. Just "okay".
When it comes to the more "human" elements of the film, once again you have a mixed bag. Benjamin Walker as Honest Abe does incredibly well. As someone who only gives half-truths to those around him about what he does at night, his determination to not lose those around him, while making sure the vampires don't take other innocents as well is great. But the film does suffer from narrowing in on Lincoln alone to the point of almost being exclusionary. His friend and former slave Willie seems almost entirely setup to be the "sidekick" from the start, even though Speed (the man who hires Lincoln at his shop and hooks him up with Mary Todd) plays the sidekick role more than Willie. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is barely in this film, and the scenes she IS involved in are almost entirely emotion-free. The scene of Sturgess offering to bring their son back not only does her a great disservice in forgetting she was a serious Christian in real life, but the scene of her venting on Abe plays out almost childishly, instead of the serious moment it should have been (but her revenge at Gettysburg made me call out "FUCK YEAH!" because that's the sort of thing you want from a film like this). And speaking of Sturgess, Dominic Cooper's portrayal is well done. His story arc is incredibly obvious, but the fact that he hasn't changed due to his situation is a refreshing spin on things. Out of the entire cast, though, Rufus Sewell is the one most wasted to his potential. Barely getting any screen time, and his defeat is entirely anticlimactic. A serious threat they build up, and then beaten in a blink. What a waste of a good actor.
Something I feel like I need to point out is how they handle their mythology. The fact they played with the concept of science trumping certain areas of folklore and mythology (like sunscreen so that they can be in sunlight with any real problems) is rather interesting, but the underlying themes play throughout. Not every bite turns someone, in fact treating it like a neurotoxin that infects someone before turning them. The "Master" rule is in play (the turned cannot attack one another), although this was broken in the final battle when Sturgess defends Lincoln from Adam. The idea of Silver as a weakness due to the connection to the pieces of Silver for Jesus' betrayal by Judas was rather inventive. And the play on vampires and seed or dirt was rather nice to see in the film ("vampires are drawn to seeds to count them" is reversed to seeds sticking to vampires as "creatures of the Earth", and the concept that vampires and soil are mutually exclusive is in play as well). All in all, big thumbs up for doing something different with the genre. It needs new lifeblood like this.
In the end, is this film worth seeing? Yes, yes it is. Is it a "masterpiece" on par with say, "the Avengers"? No. And it never SHOULD BE COMPARED to the Avengers. Two completely separate genres, two completely separate types of stories. And that's been the main problem with most reviews for films so far this season: people are comparing something that should be viewed on it's own merits. I'm not saying it should be seen in theaters, but this film works better when there's more than two or three people at a time watching it. It's a fun film, with plenty of spectacular moments to make you not pay attention to how quickly it goes by. It does what it intends to do: liberate you from boredom, and invest you in it's story. It's uneven from the word go, but it's still a fun ride while it lasts. On the big screen, or on the small, take a shot at a film that reinvents a genre for the sake of making it fun again. Trust me, this film doesn't actually suck.
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