Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Starring: Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Directed By: Timur Bekmambetov
[Rating: 4/5]
This will either be an absolute blast or a horrendous hour-and-a-half you will never get back. Let me try and indicate which one it will be for you.
Having witnessed his mother’s murder by a particularly nasty blood-sucker, a young Abraham Lincoln (Walker) swears vengeance upon vampire-kind. Maturing into a young man but retaining his thirst for revenge, he becomes the dedicated student of Henry Sturges (Cooper), an established vampire slayer. From here we track his political and personal journey into the legend we all know as Abraham Lincoln – President of the United States of America. With an abundance of slow motion axe-swinging and undead decapitations.
I have a soft spot for concepts that involve disregarding any kind of historical fact, ala Nazi’s setting up a secret base on the dark side of the moon. So the title alone of this film was enough to amuse (or rather bemuse) me.
Relative newcomer Benjamin Walker (dead ringer for a young Liam Neeson) takes a little while to work himself into the role of Abe, but soon inhabits it with enough gusto to carry the film to its end. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a charming choice as the love interest, but her character felt like she could have delivered more of a punch than she was dealt. Strong doesn’t really play more than your typical patriarchal evil vamp, and Cooper is solid as mentor.
The heavy action scenes are laden with CGI, and one negative is that the shots aren’t in focus enough for the scene to reach full impact. But there is impact nonetheless, and you can just feel an impending awesome/ridiculous scene coming on. The slow motion is layered on thick, but I’m one who thinks this automatically makes action scenes twice as awesome. You may not be so easy to please.
This is not for the serious. The title alone tells you everything you need to know about this film. Enter without standards, switch your brain off for an hour and a half, and believe – if only for a moment – that America’s most bearded president was a dirty filthy vampire slayer.
Danielle Muir
