Vampires are one of the biggest fad’s in movies since Twilight’s brooding appeared on the big screen. Vampires have gotten so big they have now consumed our 16th President. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter builds an alternate lifestyle for Honest Abe: a moonlighting assassin of the undead because they killed his mother. This heavy stylized revisionist history of the man in fact plays the story too safe. If the vampire story has more successfully been integrated into the overall history of Abraham Lincoln, the movie could have been one of the highlights of 2012. As is, it is passable entertainment at best.
Young Mr. Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) keeps a secret journal where he transcribes his dealings with the underworld. He gets his start after running into Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper), who turns Abe into his apprentice. Abe moves to Springfield where he meets Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and starts his political career. What starts out as a simple revenge action escalates into full-scale war for the country’s soul as well as mankind’s.
A movie called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is surprisingly devoid of humor. Director Timur Bekmambetov elects to turn this story into a horror type film. As such, the movie bares lots of resemblance to the movie 300. Much of the horror and violence is stylized in desaturated color, thus dulling its impact the more vampires that are killed. The desensitization of the deaths dulls the climax and final confrontation between Abe and the head vampire Adam (Rufus Sewell). However, the action scenes themselves are pretty fun, especially a scene involving vampires sacking a train.
There are many instances Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sets up complicated situations for the characters, but it elects to play it safe instead. Adam is very interested in seeing his race be seen as equals with humans, but he chooses to side with the South and keep slaves in bondage, making it easy for Lincoln to fight against him. Instead of making the Emancipation Proclamation have layers of emancipation, it makes Abe have to make the easy choice. In history, Mary Todd is known to have questionable mental capabilities due to issues with her children. The use of the vampires could have proved to be a fun reimagining that Mary Todd in fact wasn’t crazy, but Lincoln claimed so to keep her quiet. Instead, the story just brushes past this as if it wasn’t a big deal, wasting a juicy subplot.
The acting was never meant to be great, but is pretty solid across the board. Benjamin Walker is very contemplative, dour, and intense as Abe Lincoln. Jimmi Simpson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Anthony Mackie, and especially Dominic Cooper are worthy allies for the axe man. Rufus Sewell is very menacing as the lead vampire, with some subtle sadness underneath.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has a very dull axe accompanying his stove top hat. It is fun while it lasts, but leaves no impression other than slightly interesting. In all seriousness though, my lasting impression is that Benjamin Walker needs to take a blood test to prove that he is not Liam Neeson’s son. Maybe Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter would have been more entertaining if Lincoln were forced to give the Taken monologue. “I have a special set of skills…”