Thursday, October 18, 2012

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

I watched this movie in July. On opening weekend.

I think I delayed on this because, though I enjoyed it, it was rather 'meh' and I couldn't really get my thoughts together (which was kinda close to none). Admittedly, it wasn't as 'meh' as Avatar, but even I could summon words to describe how 'meh' I felt about Avatar at the time.

[Nowadays, 'meh' makes me speechless.]

*not too many spoilers*

This film is basically a biography of Abraham Lincoln, former US president, except it posits that important events in Lincoln's life were influenced by vampires.

Which in turn, led to cool axe-swinging, but I digress.

The main reason why I went to see this movie was because of Timur Bekmambetov, the guy who directed the awesome Day Watch (and the not-that-awesome Wanted), and you can see his chaotic style of action . And by 'chaotic', I don't mean it's messy or anything; it just brings about a sense of helter-skelter that's gorgeous to look at.

Watch Day Watch, and you'll see what I mean.

The pacing in the first half is relatively slow, even though it had the horse scene (which didn't do much for it), but I guess action buffs wouldn't be disappointed. The only action bit I enjoyed was the final scenes on top of the train, which had Lincoln fighting hordes of vampires back-to-back with his best friend, and only using an axe between the both of them.

[It was thrilling.]

Despite the pacing, involving vampires did make everything a lot more interesting. Who would've thought the Civil War was about vampires holding the Confederate South? That the slave trade was thriving because vampires needed food? Who'da thunk?

The ending was surprisingly poignant. Lincoln's vampire mentor offers him immortality, telling him that the both of them could go through history and kill vampires and make the world safer for it. Lincoln refuses the offer, saying that a man's actions instead make him immortal, and leaves for that fateful evening at the theatre.

It shows us that even in historical fiction, you can't change history.

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Feeling a bit more euphoric than usual...

But I'm still out of words, so I still can't finish posts that I've started. Sigh.

I'm sorry that the majority of my posts nowadays seem to revolve around how down in the dumps I am, and how I'm unable to finish my posts, bla bla freakin' bla.

Well, I'm on leave tomorrow, I have a semi-long weekend, and I am feeling the uplift (for the record, I don't know whether that's a proper word), so Imma try to get one or two posts out by this weekend.

Happy Thursday Night, y'all!

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

'Awesome'...

...is usually used in a positive context, e.g.,

"Despite the bitchin', The Avengers is probably one of the most awesome(st) movies of all time."

However, the root word for 'awesome' is 'awe', and with that, well, just because you feel awed at something, doesn't necessarily mean that that something is a good thing.

[You get my thing?]

Case in point: your house is dangerously close to being overrun by zombies.

Since we're approaching December 2012, I do apologise for the reminder on the apocalypse, but I've been playing Plants and Zombies for a while now, and am loving every minute of it.

Back to the English lesson, nobody in their right mind (ha!) would use 'awesome' to describe this situation. Not even if you were a zombie, because then you'd be stuck outside with your fellow undead and, on the presumption that the human is home alone, there's only one brain to be had by all and sundry.

But if we use 'awesome' to describe the zombies en masse (there's really a lot of them outside your house), to describe their formidable numbers... we wouldn't be wrong.

That's the downside of 'awesome'. Size matters.

Now, the best (or, rather, awesome) thing about this word is that it can also describe a host of other things about our situation:

...like how your door's made of awesomely-strong oak, thus currently stagnating any zombie progress into your humble abode.

...the awesome house your awesome door is attached to; your house hasn't caved in yet despite all (if not most) of the undead within a 50-mile radius banging on your house walls.

[Or goodness knows what else it is they're doing to your house walls.]

...the fact that the apocalypse is already upon us and the Internet still works, making it an awesomely useless luxury.

...and finally, like you, dear awesome reader, who, in this hypothetical end-of-the-world situation, is still looking at this post.

[Thank you very much!]

Though I must say, I am pretty awesome myself for putting out a post at this time, what with all the zombies roaming about.


Last overuse of the word, I promise.

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