Movie Review: "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"

Summer Blockbuster Season is the time of year for superheroes.

Iron Man.

Batman.

Lincoln...?

That's right!  Who would have thought that Abraham Lincoln was a superhero?  But in "Abraham Lincoln:  Vampire Hunter" the liberator of the slaves becomes the secret bad-ass we always wanted a president to be, and the results couldn't be more explosive.

As a boy, young Abraham Lincoln watched as his mother die by the hands of vampire Jack Barts (Martin Csokas).  Fueled by rage, Lincoln, now in his 20s (now played by Benjamin Walker) attempts to kill his mother's supernatural assassin, failing in the process, but succeeding in meeting Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper), a mysterious stranger who educates young Lincoln about vampires and how to kill them -- more importantly, how to wield an axe lethally against the fanged bastards.  Years go by, Abe starts getting help by his friends Henry, Joshua Speed (Jimmi Simpson), Will Johnson (Anthony Mackie) and young wife Mary Todd Lincoln (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as Lincoln becomes more and more involved in politics and the eventual presidency, while fighting not only the Confederate nation, led by Stephen Douglas (Alan Tudyk) and the vampire leader Adam (Rufus Sewell).

Based on his New York Times Best-Selling novel of the same name, screenwriter/producer Seth Grahame- Smith ("Dark Shadows", best-selling novel "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"), along with producer Tim Burton and director Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted") play fun with history and show the motivations behind imfamous parts of American history like the slave trade and the Civil War.  Bekmambetov's visual style of shooting combined with Grahame-Smith's brilliant script make the Summer action film you never imagined.  Whether it's the soaring speeches delivered by Walker's Lincoln or the sprawling bullet-time battle sequences, you'll be left breathless by the end.

Jimmi Simpson, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Rufus Sewell are all brilliant as always.  When you can assemble a cast like this, you can always expect great things.  But the true gems of this film are Benjamin Walker and Dominic Cooper. Cooper's Henry Sturgess is dark, spry and subtle in his urgency while aiding Lincoln to his ultimate goal.  But, in the end, it's Benjamin Walker as the titular character that steals the show.  It's not even the gradual transformation Walker goes through to eventually look like the iconic Lincoln, but each mannerism, facial twitch, and subtly delivered line and speech makes you think you're watching the actual Lincoln himself.  Hell, even when Walker is dispatching hordes of the undead with his trusty axe, you, at one point or another, can't help but think "Wow!  Lincoln is a bad-ass!"

Now, I read the actual book in preparation of seeing this movie.  If you have done the same, do yourself a favor and DO NOT COMPARE THE TWO!  There are so few elements from the book, it's almost like Seth Grahame-Smith spent less time adapting his book for the big screen and more time making a brand new film with the same concept.  But, in the end, the author made the movie, so who cares?  Because if you had read the book, you would realize how difficult it would have been to make this film to begin with if Grahame-Smith had tried to do a straight adaption.


The true beauty of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" is how serious it takes itself.  Yes, the concept of the film and book were very tongue and cheek (very much like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"), but it's Grahame-Smith's brilliant screenplay that showed this is a film not to be reckoned with.  Unlike his last film "Dark Shadows", Grahame-Smith left the goofiness and satire out in lieu of pulse-pounding suspense, beautifully crafted action sequences, and dialogue that flows smoother than most of the films I've seen this Summer thus far.  And that is something you can vote for. 


FINAL VERDICT:  Though completely nothing like the book, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" is the history lesson we've all been waiting for.  With action sequences that are visual poetry and dialogue that is not only easy on the ears, but moving and inspiring, what could have been the tongue-and-cheek fest its premise puts out is, in actuality, one of the best films of the year by far.  It's honest film-making you can sink your teeth into.