A terrific action summer movie with a fresh visual style.

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2012)

After watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter at home I asked myself why I didn't go to see it in a movie theater during the summer. I should have but I guess the reason was that I thought the premise was silly. Too bad because this is a terrific action film. It's very entertaining but I stress that it's not dumb. All the actors deliver good performances. Benjamin Walker creates a fantastic hero in Abraham Lincoln, a secret vampire hunter and the 16th President of the United States. Walker is good in the action scenes as well as at delivering Lincoln's historic lines. He begins hunting vampires as a young man with the assistance of his mentor Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper). Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Lincoln's wife Mary Todd and Anthony Mackie plays his closest friend William Johnson. Rufus Sewell as Adam is the film's main antagonist, a powerful vampire with an interesting story. The film is based on Seth Grahame-Smith's mashup novel of the same name. It plays very much like a comic book movie, and it takes liberties with the facts of Lincoln's life while poking fun at some of them. Director Timur Bekmambetov has a talent for creating impressive visuals, but here with the assistance of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel the look of the film is often stunning. The scene in which Lincoln fights Jack Barts on horseback at sunset is just one amazing highlight. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter earned almost twice its budget at the box office but it should have been a bigger hit. It's serious fantasy horror. I won't be surprised if it becomes a cult movie. It's one of the best films of 2012, and I definitely recommend seeing it.