While I have said the book was 90% Lincoln, 10% vampire respectively. It appears that the movie makers took me quite literally on the more vampire front making the movie 90% vampire, 10% Lincoln. In fact, Lincoln's presence and the civil war are the only real common ground between the two works.
I found the book to be an average read and never in my life did I think I would be mounting a campaign for its defense. But I must say that the book far outshines the film in so many ways that I have devised to make a list of its merits and the movie's grievances.
Book Pros:
- Historically accurate picture of Lincoln's life, minus the vampire bits, is intriguing and charming.
- Side characters are fully developed, endearing, and relatable.
- Lincoln's reasoning for vampiric hatred is fully fleshed out and duly logical.
- It was fun and inventively violent, while still offering snippets for your other sensibilities.
Movie Cons:
- Lincoln's family and childhood(1/3 of the book) flash on screen for literally 5 min.
- Characters were deleted and added willy nilly. (Who writes out Edgar Allan Poe, MISTAKE!?!)
- They ruin Henry Sturges. (They make him proslavery, pro do-nothing about vampire invasion which doesn't make sense since he is still having Lincoln kill vampires...?)
- Lincoln wields his axe like a cheerleader's baton.
- They rewrite the ending... but it was more in line with what the book should have done, so I am not sure if it is a con. (Though fellow patrons were outraged.)
Now I know that both the book and movie are meant to have an air of campy vampiness, and perhaps I am taking things too seriously, but if you are going to make a book into a movie... shouldn't it have a semblance of the original work?
Tell me your thoughts!
I always have big problems when a movie is supposed to be based a book, yet the book's story is unrecognizable. Examples are many such as, The Love Comes Softly movie series,I might have enjoyed them had i not read the books.
ReplyDeleteThat is true. I think it is rare that they can stick to the book completely, but most times they tread so far, it really is a different story all together. I loved those books, and the movies didn't do them justice. I believe you are the one who told me about them. :)
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