Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Review

Movie: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
By: Maniac E
Date: July 29, 2012

President by day. Hunter by night.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sounds like a strange silly title. Some might find it stupid while some will find it peculiarly interesting. People would expect it as a ridiculously fun bloody action film starring one of America's greatest Presidents. Since it's directed by Timur Bekmambetov, one of the most insane action movie directors ever, it supposed to be enjoyably crazy throughout.

The story:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is the life story of the 16th President of the United States from young boy until the fateful night of his death. As a young boy, Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) witnesses the death of his mother by a vampire from whom the Lincoln family was once employed. From that night on, Lincoln seeks revenge against his mother's murderer but does not have the means nor the know how to do so. One night he meets a young stranger, Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper), who can help him in the fight against the vampires. Lincoln learns how to be as fast as a vampire and what can truly kill the undead. When his life of vampire hunting becomes second to his true calling of politics, he puts aside the hunter and becomes President. But when the Civil War begins and the South uses the vampire race, led by a vampire named Adam (Rufus Sewell), Lincoln must once again uses his mighty axe to defeat the vampires once and for all.

Talking about action scenes, they were all great and fantastic. They were energetic, full of blood, full of gore, extremely violent, and dead brutal. Most of them feature decapitations of the vampires and anyone seeking brutality, deadliness, blood, gore, and violence should be satisfied with the action scenes provided here. But what I noticed in the action scenes, particularly the Lincoln-Barts fight and parts of the climax, was that it was quite unclear. In the Lincoln-Barts fight, the two were in a sandy place with many horses galloping. I felt that there was too much sand flying around and the fight became unclear and a bit brownish. This made it hard to see what was going on. It might intentionally done like that to give it more of an old feeling but it may also be a distraction because you don't know what's going on. The same happened in parts of the climax but this time, smoke and sparks caused it.

Just a note from me to the booklovers: The movie was NOTHING like the book. The characters were different except for their names and some didn't show up at all. The events that made it from the book to the move were out of order in the movie. The details mentioned above - non- existent in the movie. The story was so choppy, leaving out huge portions of events. I am aware that not everything can be translated to a movie in a timely manner; however, it can be done far better than it was done in this movie.

To me the tone of the movie feels all wrong. With a title Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter you'd expect to see tongue firmly in cheek but instead it is played completely straight as a historical epic/action film. There is very little humor and it just feels amiss. This could have been a funny, gruesome film with a historical backbone but instead it's a boring, ridiculous film... with a historical backbone. Dominic Cooper stands out on the acting front but his twist could be seen a mile off. Benjamin Walker is fine and does a fairly accurate impression of Lincoln but he suffers under what I presume are prosthetics.

It's hard to recommend Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It's not as ridiculous as the title. It connects to Lincoln's life in a serious way. They could have at least give a bit more campier and sillier tone to make this alternate version of Lincoln iconic. Even with an awesome director, energetic cast, and vampires that look scary and kill horrifyingly, it's still not a satisfying vampiric onslaught. It's not horrible or boring either. It just needs to be an endless crazy action movie.