Some great mythology, forgettable action, and a weak main performer too

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2012)

This has one of the most attractive titles of the year – definitely a premise too cool to miss. Hell, I'm even tracking down the cheap, straight-to-DVD version of it (which is probably s***): ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES! Anyway, this is basically an all right flick in almost every aspect. It's not a straight vampire massacre as one could think it is thanks to its title. It takes itself seriously but not much. I ain't something that I intend to watch again; pretty but not very impressive. It's all right, period.
In terms of mythology, it's mostly pretty damn great. It sort-of has the vibe that, I believe, DJANGO UNCHAINED will offer. I mean, this is certainly set in times of slavery, and we have our main character as a lone hero arriving to a town – western material, right? The combination of the American slavery issue and vampires turned out to be interesting and definitely worked – we have vampires buying slaves, and that thing seen as pretty much something good since keeps the rest of the American population safe from vampires. Yeah, that's terrific, interesting as hell mythology for my money.
And visually, well, the film is really nice. This was actually my very first experience with the work of Timur Bekmambetov; but I do know who the guy is and, based on what I've heard, I'm sure that here he remained faithful, for better or worse, to his MATRIX-influenced style. Bekmamvetov's way of presenting the action is not something that gets me excited, to tell the truth. I didn't care for it but at the same time, I can't think in it as a big problem of the film (in other words, it doesn't annoys me). The performance of Benjamin Walker (as Abe) is definitely closer to be a problem. He's not bad, but never truly convinced me and couldn't deal once his part as young Abraham Lincoln ended. Not the best makeup work, though nothing as bad as the work done in Eastwood's J. EDGAR – Mary Elizabeth Winstead, for instance, is fine when she's doing Mary Todd in an older age.
Was I the only one who recalled THE PROTECTOR (the Tony Jaa masterpiece of a martial arts movie) thanks to this? There's a whole sequence dealing with Abe and his main antagonist fighting in the middle of lots or wild horses running. And I recalled that mentioned Tony Jaa flick because Abe's antagonist grabs and throws a horse – in THE PROTECTOR they threw an elephant and that scene delivered an insanely fun moment; I still have it in my mind (just like the whole action of the movie) after 5 or so years of watching it. Will I remember in a near future something about the action (fights, vampire killings and that kind of thing) from ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER? I don't think so. So yes, this time I liked more the mythology and that's the main reason why I'm giving a decent rating.
*Watched it on 08 September, 2012