Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror
Rating: D
I think my favourite part about Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was the fact that I was lucky enough to be able to see it for free. Actually, I think the only part of this movie that I enjoyed was the fact that I was lucky enough to be able to see it for free.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter follows the life of the 16th president of the United States, from the time of his mother's death to the night of his own assassination, nearly fifty years later. Following his mother's murder Abe (Walker) takes it upon himself to avenger her; little does he realize that her murderer, Jack Barts (Csokas), was a vampire. Once this news became apparent to him Lincoln is recruited to hunt vampires by Henry Sturgees (Cooper), a man who knows a lot about vampires and the rules for hunting them. In the course of his vampire slaying, Abe realizes that Henry's way of hunting vampires isn't enough; he would be far better off taking the office of the President of the United States, where he can fight against the hordes of slave-owning, southern vampires that threaten the nation.
I don't know where to begin with this movie. The special effects were over done. I understand that the use of CGI and the like is deemed to be necessary in movies like this, and can add a lot to fantasy and science fiction based movies, but in Abraham Lincoln it was just too over the top. The viewer shouldn't feel like something as simple as a man twirling an axe had to be CGI-ed. He's just doing a variation of staff twirling, it's not that complicated. The CGI in the fight scenes is also over the top; while I understand why it was necessary in some points, its over use gave the movie this really weird feel to it - almost like it was trying to be like a steam-punk, vampire based version of The Matrix - except, not as cool. There were a few moments when the fights were awesome, but a lot of it was just... once again, it was too fake and fluffy. Many of the action sequences could have been done without, in favour of actually explaining some of the story.
A major plot point to the film is the fact that the vampires, lead by leader Adam (Sewell), are taking over the south of the United States, making the American Civil War a fight for humanity as much as a fight against slavery. In my opinion, this whole aspect of the plot was left largely undeveloped; instead the filmmakers decided to spend a lot of time having Abe fight CGI-ed vampires in the start of the film, do a quick montage to go 'oh, hey, here's a viable plot - and then have him fight some more CGI-ed vampires. As such, the film really isn't evenly balanced and the villain isn't given his proper due - or any real explanation. The acting itself isn't bad, and I especially liked Dominic Cooper, but the actors themselves aren't really supported by anything. Possibly the worst part is the fact that some of the plot twists are made blatantly obvious in the start of the film, so that when they're revealed later on the viewer has to question just how slow Abe has to be in order to not have figured them out. Oh, also, back on the CGI note, the eyes of the vampires are really disturbing; in my opinion, Sewell's eyes were possibly the freakiest part of the entire film. This is definitely a movie that I would recommend avoiding; having now seen it, I'm even considering flat out avoiding the book as well. In conclusion, I do have to say that I'm sorry for having recommended this movie on Friday. Now I'm saying skip this movie.
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