Great choreography & breathtaking visuals, along with solid acting, cover a few plot holes in an otherwise fun film

Rating: 7/10 (25 June 2012)

Unlike most people who wrote this movie off as soon as they saw the title, I was excited to see this film. Regardless of what the movie is called, whether it's Jesus the Pedophile or George Bush the Camel Tamer, if it looks good you can bet your ass I will go see it. Putting my ranting aside, this movie is based off of a book by Seth Grahame-Smith with the same name and having heard rave reviews about the work of literature I went into the movie expecting a good movie. I was not disappointed.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a movie based loosely off of the life of the 16th President of the United States. Right away this movie sets itself up as a fantastical movie with lots of action and gore, fully deserving the R rating (in the best way possible). Abraham Lincoln's mother gets killed by someone, who Lincoln later finds out is a vampire, and wanting to exact revenge he takes a midnight jaunt to this vampire's last known location and puts a bullet into his head. Little does he know that bullets, apart from silver ones, do not kill vampires and subsequently gets his ass kicked by this dead fiend. After a nice whooping, a nice gentleman saves him and after waking up in this aforementioned gentleman's house Lincoln pleads his case and the gentleman, who ends up being Lincoln's future friend Henry, teaches Lincoln the secrets to vampire hunting. Setting up a decree of guidelines that Lincoln has to follow, he proceeds to sends Lincoln a new target every now and again, hoping to thin the vampire lines and eventually wipe out the race entirely.
The fight scenes in this movie are extremely exciting and are fully worth the 3D surcharge. This movie has to have been filmed with a 5K resolution camera because the graphics are up to par with Ridley Scott's most recent piece of dung, Prometheus - and that's saying something. The choreography in said fight scenes is probably the brightest star that shines in this bijou's plentiful sky. All the actor's are completely enthralled in performing their respective roles and it shows because every motion from jump, to crouch, to a swing of Abe Lincoln's axe is beautifully detailed and fluid, without choppy motions or uneven transitions. The use of slow motion really adds to this effect and despite being used frequently does not become shopworn or banal.
I mentioned the visuals in the previous paragraph but they deserve another look-see (as weak of a pun as that is). The blood effects in this movie are detailed and disgusting but it makes it all the better; the simple graphical ends in this movie make it an all-around beauty to watch - the dirt that is kicked up during a chase scene with about 100 horses is detailed and visually entertaining; the battle scenes where the dead attack the living are visually pleasing and you can almost see the ageless wrinkles on the vampires' faces. All-in-all this movie should be considered in contention to receive the title of graphical powerhouse.
Amidst the great choreography and breathtaking visuals there lie a few miscues and maybe even plot holes. When Henry gets bitten by a vampire he turns into immediately while his wife, who also gets bitten, lies limp and dying in his arms. Soon after she dies - why? How come both female characters in the film who get bitten by the vampire, along with Lincoln's future son, die soon after their wounds are inflicted? And how can Speed commandeer a horse and carriage to go directly through a building's window/wall without any damage to the animals themselves? Given the "castles in the air" nature of the movie I can get over the latter quip of the two mentioned.
So, should you go spend some amount of money on this movie? Yes. Should you fork over the extra (approximate) $2.50 surcharge for 3D? Maybe. If you're a 3D buff, then yes. If you are rich, then why not? The 3D, unlike in some movies, compliments the plot and action scenes so therefore you hardly notice that you're wearing glasses 15 minutes into the film. Therefore, I would recommend seeing this movie in 3D, if you're not too frugal.
In the end, this movie proves it's worth to me and silences the naysayers and critics (and that one woman behind me, who after seeing the trailer for the movie thought that the director/screenplay writer were re-writing history). This is a very solid film with stellar acting performances from Benjamin Walker and Dominic Cooper. And to answer the question whether this film is worth a watch, I shall take a lyric from the band Rev Theory: "Hell Yeah".
+3 Graphics
+1 Choreography
+2 Benjamin Walker
+1 Dominic Cooper