Abraham Lincoln: Cazador de vampiros

This is what a comedy-action-horror should be like. A preposterous idea mixed with some drama, wit, scares and decent enough CGI. Because of events he saw as a child Lincoln trains to become a vampire hunter with the assistance of Dominic Cooper.

He wants to hunt down Rufus Sewell who is the leader of the pack and before long Sewell plans to lead the South against Lincoln who is now President but not before inflicting another personal tragedy on the Lincoln family.

At least Benjamin Walker did not have to go through some faux type Daniel Day Lewis authenticity for his version of Lincoln. It was wielding axes, swords and other instruments of vampire death.

The action mixes historical fact and fiction with cartoon like action. Its fun although the movie makers might have taken things a tad too seriously in light of the fact that a Spielberg epic on Lincoln was around the corner.

Summary: The movie has horrible plot holes and inconsistencies but it makes for a good "popcorn" movie. It can be very entertaining and funny but outside of that, there's really not much. 6/10

Characters: About 3 of the characters develop (slightly) and the rest are left to rot in their horrible cliché state of blandness and stereotypes. 4/10

Effects: This is one of the better parts of the film. The effects are good and at some points great. They fit well with the action scenes. At one point in the movie, I remember it didn't feel like I was watching a movie due to the amount of action and great effects. But it was short-lived due to the silly plot. 8/10

Plot: PFFFFFFT. It's bad. Really bad. But funny. Very funny. 5/10

Should I see it?: But if you're bored one night and have some dough to waste for a couple of cheap laughs and good action scenes, this movie is fine for you.

If you're looking for something deep or for a classic movie you can remember for this summer, this movie isn't it.

If you take this movie so serious you'll be disappointed 'cause it's not. But if you take it as fun movie, fulled of action/fantasy/horror scenes and as what it is then you can give it a chance. Maybe, the character of Abraham Lincoln defined as vampire slayer is naive and childish and is not what you expected to see for historical important figure. Maybe someone thinks that this is disgrace for the character. And finally maybe someone thinks there is a storyline abstraction 'cause the book is better and I don't doubt that even I haven't read it. All this defects are not so important if you like movies in this kind of genre like Underworld, Resident Evil etc. This was a movie that deserves attention and give it a try.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

*** (out of 4)

This horror/action film sets up to tell the true story of Abraham Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) who witnessed his mother getting killed by a vampire so he dedicates his life to stopping the bloodsucking creatures. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER might have a silly title but it's actually a fairly ambitious little movie that really took me by surprise. Going by the trailer you'd think that this film was just going to try and do a BUBBA HO TEP and takes a historical figure and make some cheap thrills out of him killing vampires. There's no doubt that the "cheap thrill" aspect is on full display here but the film actually goes a bit further by tying all of these events into common knowledge surrounding Lincoln's life. Not only do we get the vampire stuff but it's pretty well blended in with various historical truths like Lincoln becoming a lawyer, marrying Mary Todd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and we go all the way up to the Civil War. The final thirty-minutes actually take place during the Civil War and the way the writers used slavery and the vampires was pretty interesting. With that said, I really hope no one goes into this movie expecting historical accuracies (they'd be crazy right?). Walker actually does a very good job at playing Lincoln. I thought he was very believable playing the good soul as well as the action hero. Dominic Cooper was excellent as his mentor and Anthony Mackie is also very good in his role as a black man who aids Lincoln. Even Winstead is good in her part even though the screenplay doesn't do her character much justice. The one major issue I had with the film was the incredibly bad CGI effects. I thought there were some that was so bad that you'd expect to be seeing them in a SyFy movie. Just take a look at the scene where Lincoln in chopping the tree or a really embarrassing sequence dealing with horses. The slow motion action scenes also weren't all that entertaining. With that said, I really liked the way director Timur Bekmambetov built up the atmosphere of the 1800's. I was really surprised how how authentic everything was and I think this is a reason why the CGI looks even worse. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER should have been a really, really bad movie but I think for the most part they got it right and those with a little knowledge of the real history around the war should find the touches interesting.

It is what it is, a nutty premise made in nutty fashion, but for the undemanding horror fan there's a good time to be had here. Action choreography is of a very good standard, as is, perhaps surprisingly, the CGI. The history aspects of the story, one Abraham Lincoln's accent into justifiable legendary status, are of course a mixture of the based on fact and chaotic popcorn, but it's always interesting, exciting and bloody!

I imagine most horror fans have seen it by now, but if like me you are late to it, and like me you go in with low expectation levels, you could well find yourself having a blast and not hating yourself in the morning . All that and Rufus Sewell looks suspiciously like Adam Ant! 7/10