Second week of Clarion West’s Write-a-thon down! I made it up to 18.5 k of Deadshifted. In theory, this week I would try to stretch to 30k. In actuality, I have Shapeshifted copyedits due by Thurs. So I’ll be working on those exclusively for the next few days.
I had a great phone interview with Laurie about Nightshifted over at Dangerous Romance — it was super fun!
I worked most of this past week, although I did have some free time to write while watching a patient breathe which was nice. Then my husband and I went out to see Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter today.
Which let me just say — was awesome.
So awesome.
It’s funny, because the last time I was flying, my airport bookstore choices were the book this movie was based on, Fifty Shades of Grey, and The Psychopath Test. I opted for the latter. (Turns out I’m not a psychopath, although it was a very interesting book to read, even if the pagination and margins were fluffing it hard.) I remember thinking Fifty Shades would be weird to read on the plane, and that I’d see Abraham Lincoln when it came out and if it was any good, then I’d bother to read the book. Having not read any other books by Seth Grahame-Smith and considering the Jane Austin zombie one to be a schtick, I was hesitant (while also realizing, hey, i write about vampires, pot, kettle, black.)
Now, after watching the movie, I actually want to read the book. Without any spoilers, other than the native details of Lincoln’s life, the movie managed to wind together a coming-of-age story, a biopic, a horror film, an action film, a horrors of war story, and a bit of a buddy film, all in one package. The vampires were nicely vampiric, violent, eternal, and the action was second to none. (Although I knew going in that it would be. Timur Bekmambetov, can your brain please have babies with my books? Thank you.)
If it failed at all, it was due to its ambition, but given everything they were juggling, trying — and succeeding! — to pull off, this was one of the most well done and downright fun films I’ve seen in a very long time.
As an added bonus, it was refreshing to see a war presented on screen that had clear (although I know that the issues were more complex than they were presented) sides. The CGI presentation of the past was awesome too — a pullback shot they did in New Orleans, and again over Washington DC, was very cool. You don’t see the American past getting the CGI treatment like that very often. (I’m also very very very curious to see what the next Assassin’s Creed game does with its time in the Revolutionary War.)
If you don’t think you’re going to like it, it might not win you over. But if you’re on the fence, you like vampires, or want to see Abe Lincoln kick some ass, it’s well worth the big screen time.