Well, one way it seems to make your film stick out is to give it a ridiculous title. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I mean, last time I checked, Lincoln wasn't a vampire hunter.
The film follows Abraham Lincoln (Benjamin Walker)... surprise, surprise... through his early life right up until he becomes President of the United States of America. When he was younger, he watched his Mother (Robin McLeavy) killed by vampire, Jack Barts (Marton Csokas). After a failed attempt to take revenge, Lincoln is trained by Henry Sturgess (Dominic Cooper) - who has a dark secret of his own - to kill vampires, but only the vampires that Sturgess tells him to. Along the way, Lincoln meets the love of his life, Mary Todd Lincoln (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). When he later becomes President, Lincoln soon realises that vampires have joined forces with the Confederates in the South, so he decides to mount his own campaign to not only abolish slavery, but also to kill all vampires.
As you can see, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter covers a lot of ground in Lincoln's life. It literally takes him from his childhood, right up until the moments before he dies (his wife's last words being, "Hurry up or we'll be late for the theatre!")
Because of this, certain parts of the film feel very rushed. When his Mother is killed near the beginning, Lincoln is given no time to mourn his Mother's death. Straight away, he seeks revenge and attempts to kill Barts. When he meets Mary Todd, their relationship seems really rushed as they are given no time to fall in love. There is a quite nice scene where she demands to know what Lincoln does and he tells her the exact truth about hunting vampires, before she laughs and tells him to not be so silly. However, there doesn't seem to be enough of these moments. Also, when revenge is exacted upon Barts (as it so inevitably happens - I would label this a spoiler, but it's pretty obvious that it will happen), Lincoln seems to kill him and then move on straight away.
However, while the film can feel a little rushed at time, the action also runs along at break-neck speed. The direction from Timur Bekmambetov (previous films including Wanted and Night Watch) is pretty much spot on to create the exciting, yet tongue-in-cheek atmosphere that the film so desperately needed. It could have easily gone down the serious horror route, but I think this would have been damaging to the credibility of the film being an action adventure. While some scenes can seems bit repetitive from Timur's previous efforts (the train scene in this film seemed painfully close to the train crash scene from Wanted), you can't blame him for sticking to what he does best.
If anything, I would have liked the film to be a little bit more funny, maybe in the vein of something like Sherlock Holmes. I'm sure people would claim that this would be a wrong idea and that the vampire genre has completely "jumped the shark" with this film, but I couldn't help but feel how much of a good time I was having while watching this. Sometimes, you just need a silly film to switch off to, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is definitely a film that you need to switch off to.
The set design and costumes are something that I cannot fault, and coupled with the gorgeous cinematography, this film certainly looks impressive. While the 3D doesn't really add anything to the film, it's rarely used as a gimmick - the only shot I can think of is when someone cracks their whip right in your face... Otherwise, you wouldn't miss the 3D at all in this film. The furthest thing that "sticks out" is the dust in the air in some of the scenes.
So, if you like your vampire films silly with lots of action scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat, then you can't really go wrong with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. However, if you are a vampire aficionado, then this one should be missed. But, if you are a serious vampire fan and you aren't put off by a title such as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, then I have no pity for you!
***½ / *****
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