Spectacularly Underwhleming

Rating: 1/10 (28 November 2012)

I went in with high expectations; after all this movie has a top notch director, an all-star cast, and monumental subject matter. I came out wondering if I could get my money back, as this was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Well, what I saw of it. Fortunately, the theater was nearly empty, so I did not disturb other viewers with my snoring as this disaster bored me to sleep. Twice.
After the shock of wasting that much of my life on this flop, I realized my anger was not directed at what a bad movie it was (and it was a truly bad movie), but what I later realized was it was such a colossal waste of time and talent. It could have been a very good movie, a spectacular movie for all time, but it never even got started on getting close to that level.
As a movie about Lincoln, it devoted very little of the movie to the subject, spending over half of it recreating the machinations of the House of Representatives debating the 13th Amendment. There was some new insight into Lincoln himself, for which Mr. Day-Lewis should be well credited, but taken as a whole, this was a monumental flop.
Mr. Day-Lewis was, by all accounts, able to recreate some of the physical characteristics of the late President, most notably his awkward gait. Several scenes depicted Mr. Day-Lewis plodding away down a hall in a perfect analogy for the movie - a slow, ponderous, heavy, dull and boring.
Added to the bad acting, bad directing, and bad writing were the bad visual effects - the CGI additions to buildings that didn't quite fit- plus all the little things that will appear as "goofs" in the pages of IMDb.com as others watch this monstrosity on DVD later.