Abe Lincoln and the Axe

I saw Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter this weekend. It scores 6.4 on IMDb which is below what is a typical rating for a "reasonable" movie - and, reading the reviews, it definitely polarises viewpoints.

I liked it. As did my wife, daughter (21) and son (15). And it generated some after-movie conversation which is always a good sign. In fact we measure the success of a movie by how much after-movie discussion we engage in.

Many of the IMDb review criticisms are "it's not like the book" so we can ignore those: Some people just can't get past the fact that films are most often not like the book (even LOTR took huge liberties) and to go in expecting it will be is foolish. EDIT: As it turns out the screen adaptation was by the original author anyway, so no "not like the book" complaint is valid.

But the reason, I think, some people did not like is that it's thoughtful and, unlike most action movies, spans almost his entire life.

It's not a perfect film, there were perhaps two points where my screenwriting head went "what?", but it is not by any means a bad film.

###NON-SPECIFIC SPOILERAGE FOLLOWS###

What the film does suggest is that the war between the north and south in the US was because vampires find slavery ideal: They can own slaves and then do whatever they want with them without being questioned.

The first part of the film involves Abe fighting vampires on a one-to-one basis, but then moves into his political career where he knows he's still fighting vampires but at a distance instead. Ultimately he has to go hand-to-hand again for the final confrontation.

###END OF SPOILERAGE###

The vampiric theme is wound into the actual events of Lincoln's life and is treated as a metaphor for slavery. And I can't say that I disagree with the suggestion.

Weirdly enough, though a "summer blockbuster" this film is guaranteed to annoy and upset some people - because of what it says. As one positive reviewer said "You'll have to bring your brain to enjoy this movie."

And I find that rather refreshing.

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What's on the turntable? No idea.

A Chimp in Space Oddity

Of all the animated movies I've seen recently I have to say, much to my surprise, Space Chimps had the best script. I didn't expect much of Kung-Fu Panda but it was funnier than I expected and the children thought it was a lot of fun.

Then there was Wall-E. I'd heard it was good, and it was Pixar which was a good sign. It was okay. The animation was superb, of course, and yet structurally the script suffered from fundamental mistakes which made the ending a bit flat.

***SPOILER***

The protagonist is Wall-E, the bad guy is the Axiom's pilot computer. Yet a plot is as strong as the antagonist who, in this, doesn't appear until at least 1/3rd the way through (maybe 1/2). And then it's not Wall-E who defeats it, but the ship's captain. Flat. Wall-E has no fundamental flow that he needs to overcome, neither does the love-interest. In fact Wall-E goes through the film with only a single purpose and completely unaware that he is changing the lives of those he encounters.

***END SPOILER***

Then there's Space Chimps: it's very funny and, unlike Wall-E, it makes it very clear who the bad guy is right at the start even though protagonist and antagonist don't meet until the showdown. There's plenty of slapstick for the younger kids but a lot of the humour is parent-directed.

But there was this one joke towards the end, where the protagonist, Ham III, is required to pilot the ship back home. But he's just a circus chimp and says he can't do it. The NASA chimp, Titan, says "Are you wearing an aluminium suit?" "Yes." "Are you in outer space?" "Yes." "Are you David Bowie?" "... No." "Then you're an astronaut!"

I smiled at the Bowie joke. The cinema was packed with parents and kids, but only two out-loud laughs exploded at the Bowie joke. My almost-11 year old son and my 17 year-old daughter.

Apparently we were the only ones who got the joke. Clearly they have been brought up properly.

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What's on the turntable? Nothing, we're watching TV.