Screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith, based on his novel.
Running Time: 105 minutes (1h, 45 mins.)
Rated R (for violence throughout and brief sexuality).
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Never in my 16 years of living on this earth did I think I would review a film like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Why? While I was one of many who read the book, I didn't think this would come to the big screen. Maybe DVD perhaps, but in theatres? Studios are way too concious to put a mash-up to the big screen, especially since the last one we got didn't live up to box office expectations (Cowboys & Aliens. It was a mashup of two genres).
Thanks to Fox, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmembetov, the director most North American audiences know for doing Wanted (though I know him for also doing Night Watch and Day Watch), and the author himself, Seth Grahame-Smith, Abe Lincoln's fake secret past is on the big screen. This has already divided critics and audiences: either they're with it or against it.
As for me? For the first hour, I was slightly going against it. The film had a cool opening in the beginning, but as it went by with a quick training montage sequence (probably the quickest I've seen), it slowly died down. The first three or four vampires kills by Lincoln felt so lame and it felt less fun than I wanted it to be. But then, it picked up. It went back to being what I asked for. Like the book, it's kind of smart, in the way that it manages to be historically accurate to everything that happened in the man's life as the 16th president.
Then again, I can get that historical accuracy when Steven Spielberg's upcoming biopic comes out this year, hopefully. Another reason this has divided critics and audiences is because of how the film takes itself seriously. The film didn't need to take itself seriously, that's for sure, but it does and strangely it works. There are times where it turns a little laughable, but overall it works in a strange kind of way that I really can't put my finger on.
For a film that has campy sensibilities, most of the cast pulls off good performances. Benjamin Walker (who people either know for his portrayal of Andrew Jackson, another American president, in the Off Broadway and Broadway incarnations of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson or for being Meryl Streep's son-in-law) pulls off a breakthrough performance as Lincoln young & old. I was more impressed with Dominic Cooper as Henry, the man who helps Lincoln become the hunter. He has enough charisma, wit and depth for audiences to enjoy his presence on the screen.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is also pretty game as Mary Todd Lincoln. Anthony Mackie is fine as William Johnson, Rufus Sewell could have done more antagonizing as Adam, but Alan Tudyk? He plays Stephen Douglas, who is as equally important as the others as he is the man Lincoln faces against politically (and the one who was previously engaged to Mary Todd), but he wasn't shown enough so it just seems like he was there for nothing.
As I mentioned before, Timur Bekmambetov is director and co-producer of the film and he's a pretty visual director when it comes to special effects and fight sequences. The visuals are somewhat impressive. I will admit some are a little cheesy (a little unsurprising since this is a film with campy sensibilities). The fight sequences, as repetitive as they can be with the slo-mo thing happening, are pretty good as well (the best one being the train sequence).
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is what it is, love it or hate it, with it or against it: a B movie with an A movie type budget and a somewhat recognizable cast. While the movie has a first half that starts off promising, but slowly dies down, it picks back up in the second, offering what the audience paid to see. There's probably no point of me giving this film a rating since I didn't expect more or less, but since it's necessary, a 6.5 out of 10 will do. This is pretty average camp and that's not a bad thing.
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