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Film: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Year: 2012
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Writer: Seth Grahame-Smith
Starring: Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell and Dominic Cooper
Review:
This film begins with a voice-over, done by Benjamin Walker who plays the title character. We see what America looks like near the end of Lincoln’s presidency and it shifts to what it looked like when he was a boy. We see a young Lincoln and his best friend, who is an African-American. Bounty hunters are trying to claim that the boy and his family are runaway slaves. They are trying to take them to the South. Lincoln tries to save his friend, but he is attacked along with his friend. The man attacking is played by Marton Csokas. He fires Lincoln’s parents.
Later that night, Lincoln is sleeping in the room above his mother. Through the floorboards he sees she is attacked by Csokas, who is a vampire.
He grows up to be Walker and he is going to kill Csokas. At the bar a man calls Walker out on it; he is played by Dominic Cooper. Walker tries to kill Csokas, but as a vampire he can’t do it with conventional means and he is attacked.
Cooper saves him and Walker asks him to train him to kill vampires. Cooper agrees, but there are conditions. Walker moves away to do his work for Cooper and meets Jimmi Simpson. Walker ends up working for and lives with Simpson. Walker begins to get politically active and falls in love with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Cooper is displeased, but doesn’t really stop him.
Walker learns that the vampires in the United States use slavery as a way to survive. He knows that he must end slavery to stop the vampires. The master vampire, played by Rufus Sewell, will do what he can to stop Walker. He also gives him an interesting proposition as well.
We know about history of what happened in the Civil War, but this film shows us what really happened behind the scenes as Abraham Lincoln hunted the vampires that tried to take over the United States. What did he have to go through and sacrifice for our country? What will Walker need to learn about from Cooper and will he be able to handle the truths he is faced with?
I have to say, I was a really big fan of the books and this film is really only related to that in name and characters alone. They cut out a lot of what made the book great and completely changed history. It is odd to me, because the man who wrote it, Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the book and the screenplay. I really didn’t care for this as a film. It has a great concept, but the book did it great while the film falls short.
What I did like was that the action scenes were great. I did not like the weapons that were used, since they do not exist today, let alone during the time period. I also was not a huge fan that they made Walker super strong for a human. I get that Lincoln was probably strong, as he did work with his hands, but I’m sure he wasn’t splitting trees by throwing an axe or with one swing. If you stretch your imagination a bit, then it’s not horrible, I just wasn’t a big fan.
I was really disappointed in this one. The history aspect of it is not really close to be true at all, unlike the book which took historical facts that could have vampire backing. There were things in this that were unrealistic and the film seemed more interested in creating action. Cut a lot of good things from the book as well. I would say watch it to see if you like it, but if this sounds stupid, then definitely avoid this one.
My Rating: 4 out of 10