Seeing Night Watch back in the cinema in 2004 was one of those experiences where you felt like you had been let in on a secret that not many others had. Very few people saw it on the big screen, but for those that did Timur Bekmambetov’s film was a puzzling delight. The follow up (Day Watch) wasn’t much cop however and Bekmambetov’s first foray into Hollywood with Wanted was a mixture of good and bad washed out by far too many special effects (more of that in sec). Now we have the head turning title of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel of the same name. This is an easy film to review on two fronts. The first being that the title says all you need to know (though for completists it’s the unremarkable Benjamin Walker taking the title role). Second, this is so effects heavy it leads me into a wider discussion. Can this even be classified as a “film” at all and can Bekmambetov be described as a “film director”? There isn’t much here which doesn’t utilise a green screen and so it’s pretty difficult to get a “feel” for the picture in question (regardless of how absurd the content may be). This is reflected in the performances where the actors spend most of the time looking awkward and trying to react to stuff which was to be filled in later. There are huge scenes of mayhem here, but zero, and I mean zero, thrills. It’s all just pixels (and not very convincing ones at that) and any sense of danger or dread is lost amongst the almost cartoon backgrounds (a scene involving a pack of charging horses is abysmally rendered). Frankly, where’s the effort? Where’s the heart? Though Night Watch was also infused with heavy effects, it also has enough live footage for it to have a human touch and empathy with the characters. This should have been a blast of B-movie fun. Well, I suppose it is in a way, but the B in this case is for bollocks.
The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Well, it’s an original premise, I’ll give it that. Rating: 3/10.
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