Exactly what I expected

Rating: 7/10 (8 September 2014)

This is yet another film that I'd been putting off for ages, which I finally got round to watching. But whereas many films surprise you, Lincoln did not - it was exactly what I expected, a slow film about politics.
The film was pretty good overall and gets 7 stars, with only 3 against, so let's take the short route and talk about the 3 negative stars.
It was overly complex and not very exciting, but I accept my low interest in politics as a factor in that, but it still had an element of Spielberg spoon feeding which I couldn't tolerate. The educated black corporal, enunciating his point perfectly, questioning Lincoln's policies, followed by the two rather dense white boys, fumbling their words, just to emphasise that Negroes were indeed quite intelligent chappies and shouldn't have been slaves at all. We knew that already.
There were no battles or real fighting in it. I remember when I was a young lad, excitedly watching a movie with bare breasts at the start, only to discover two hours later that these were the only bosoms throughout the entire film. A trick to haul audiences in by showing grimy fight scenes at the start, but nothing else thereafter. Lots of military costumes, stills, bands playing - no action.
And most importantly, the film wasn't really about 'Lincoln' at all, was it? It should have been called the 'Thirteenth Amendment', a film about the abolishment of slavery. If it had been about Lincoln then I would have expected scenes about his childhood, growing up, how he got into politics, who he defeated to become president, kids, marriage, etc. but that's not what the film was about.
A film about the abolishment of slavery and the signing of the 13th amendment, which was presided over by Lincoln, the president at the time. Lincoln was a good film, but it fell short for me. It was overly complex in some places and very restrictive in its approach in others.
I mostly enjoyed it though and at least I can say I have seen it.