Dumb Fun

Rating: 6/10 (22 June 2012)

The first half of ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER works the best. Perhaps because there's more leeway to historical events concerning the life of who many regard as America's greatest President. And there's more butt kicking.
According to this story, based on a popular graphic novel, a young Lincoln lost his parents to a bloodthirsty vampire and grew up seeking revenge. In his twenties, our spirited yet naïve hero finds a teacher in Dominic Cooper's maverick vamp slayer Henry who, a cross between Van Helsing and James Cagney, teaches Abe how to really swing an axe.
Lincoln, played with lanky gusto by Benjamin Walker, has only one bloodsucker on his list – but Henry makes sure his swift protégée wipes out several others along the way. These make for the best action sequences: young clean shaven Lincoln taking out each roaring computer-generated vamp (too loud to be scary) disguised as store owners and pharmacists.
Then after a pivotal sequence where our hero lays down his axe for politics, we skip several years ahead. America's in the throes of The Civil War and Lincoln, with signature beard and stove top hat, resides in the white house. Putting a spin on real life events, like the death of Lincoln's son, not only suspends disbelief but throws history in the garbage. Is it in bad taste reshaping the battle of Gettysburg into a gory vampire bloodfest for geeks to marvel at? Sure it is.
But a more contained and personal battle aboard a train – with all the characters together including the main villain who wants to dominate the world – makes us remember this is only a movie. And if you turn off your brain just right, it can be a somewhat entertaining one.
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