Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - A Review by Brandon Krzysztof

Rating: 5/10 (22 June 2012)

"Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" is an action filled drama that combines American history and the popular vampire theme that movie goers have grown up with. With the several vampire movies that have been released in recent years, this movie has to compete with the idea that the audience may be tired of the genre. By adding the name Abraham Lincoln to the movie, this film just may spark a new genre of combining horror themes with American history. Abraham Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) as a kid witnessed his mother being killed by a vampire and now as young man before his life in politics, he gets trained by Henry (Dominic Cooper) on how to hunt vampires. With this knowledge, he plans to hunt down the vampire who killed his mother. After calling it quits to pursue a career in politics, he hears that vampires are helping the Confederacy in the war and comes up with a plan to eliminate them and win the war. The acting in the movie was decent and tolerable; that was one of the few things I wasn't expecting. Benjamin Walker did a good job as young and old Abe Lincoln. The film had a lot of violence and gore, but the director's previous film (Wanted) had a lot too so I was expecting that. The pace of the film was somewhat good. The balance between dramatic scenes and action scenes is what kept the film going in the first half. But beginning the second half was a 20 to 30 minute scene of Abe as President with tons of dialogue and no action and it causes the audience to lose attention; but the end sequence restores that with a long action scene. The CGI and effects were over the top; it looked like Timur Bekmambetov was using the action formula he used for Wanted and it got really repetitive. Personally, I enjoyed the film. The 3D was okay, not the worst I have seen. The CGI is overused but it is tolerable. I like the concept of mashing U.S. history with the vampire theme and I think the filmmakers did that well. It's not a film that I'd recommend spending $13.50 on, but it is not a bad rental. It can easily be enjoyed as a popcorn flick. 2 1/2 out of 5.