I hate vampire movies, but I loved this one

Rating: 9/10 (24 June 2012)

One way I measure a film's success is by the feeling I have when I leave the theater. If my head is still in the framework of the movie after I leave, then I deem it to have been successful, at least on some level. After Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter it was still in my head during the drive to my friend's house, where we all met afterward and discussed it at some length, another sign of success.
I usually hate vampires in movies because most of the time they're just a cheap plot prop appealing to narcissistic types. But in this movie they're a cheap plot prop to weave a tale purporting to explain everything about Abe Lincoln and the US Civil War. In some ways it reminded me of Dick, the movie about the Watergate Scandal where "Deep Throat" turns out to be two teenage girls, and many of the veiled happenings of that scandal happen to have been caused by Betsy and Arlene, one way or another.
To really appreciate Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in that respect, it helps to know something about US history leading up to and during the Civil War. At the very least, you should look up Harriet Tubman, Jefferson Davis, and Gettysburg in Wikipedia before seeing the movie.
Bekmembatov manages to pack a good deal of history, dialog, action, and story telling into this movie. The acting it mostly good, though Mary Elizabeth Winstead's performance as Mary Todd Lincoln seemed uneven. Sometimes she was adequate, other times she was spitting her lines out too quickly, as do many pretty young women when playing this kind of historical role.
The script veers between using fairly accurate language, to complete anachronism, like "How'd that work out for ya?!" But you know, the story is about how Abe Lincoln was killing vampires, so yeah.
On the other hand, the sets, costumes, and other artwork seemed historically accurate and some of the CGI provides a new look at that era. There's a scene of the Mississippi River at New Orleans full of paddle wheel riverboats that lingers with me.
So in the end I turned out liking the vampire prop, and the bad-ass Lincoln as portrayed by Benjamin Walker.