Awesome over the top action scenes directed by Bekmambetov in his usual creative style!

Rating: 8/10 (25 June 2012)

'ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER': Four Stars (Out of Five)
The popular 2010 mashup book by author Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote the 2009 zombie take on Jane Austin's classic book ('Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'), comes to the big screen! The film was directed by Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (who also directed the vampire films 'NIGHT WATCH' and 'DAY WATCH' as well as 'WANTED'), produced by Tim Burton and written by Grahame-Smith himself. It stars Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rufus Sewell, Jimmi Simpson and Benjamin Walker in the title role. The movie is a decent monster flick with some great action scenes but has almost no depth or emotion to offer. Visually it's stunning though (especially in 3D).
The film tells the story of America's 16th (and arguably most popular) President having a secret life as a vampire hunter. It begins with his childhood in 1818 when he befriended an African American boy named William Johnson. Abraham defends his friend from being beaten one day and gets his father Thomas (Joseph Mawle) in trouble with the plantation owner he works for named Jack Barts (Marton Csokas), who's also a vampire. Barts takes Abraham's mother's (Robin McLeavy) life one night in retaliation and Abe becomes obsessed with revenge. One night as a young adult man (after his father passes away) he attempts to take his revenge on Barts when he meets Henry Sturgess (Cooper) who informs him of the vampire world and trains him to be a vampire hunter. Abraham later learns of a vampire plot to take over the country and uses his powers as President to stop them.
The movie, like I said, has awesome over the top action scenes directed by Bekmambetov in his usual creative style. It's packed with CGI and is probably best viewed in 3D. The film is somewhat surprisingly serious (which a lot of critics have criticized it for) rather than taking a more fun and campy approach to the material. It's also said to have strayed quite a bit from the book but the author did write the screenplay himself and was greatly involved in the film's production. It's definitely his (and Bekmambetov's) vision so book fan's can't complain about someone else butchering the author's work. I found the film to be a bit slow in places and dry. I wasn't entirely impressed with the casting of Walker as Lincoln and think a better actor could have done a lot more with the role. Despite lacking much substance the film is still a lot of fun and the premise is so brilliant and entertaining that the filmmakers really couldn't go that wrong. I liked it; it's definitely not for everyone but fans of vampire movies and historical fiction might get a good kick out of it.
Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn0mEP_zzoQ