It’s kind of strange to see Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch,Day Watch, Wanted) take on a project with so many American flags in each frame. But Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter works in the sense that Lincoln and the other humans are fighting evil in the most general sense of the word. Mind you, this is no 28 Days Later, and the action does get a bit tedious by the end.
But boy are those millions (70, to be exact) worth the magnificent helicopter shots of horses running for their lives (and Lincoln plus a hungry vampire running atop them) and the train crawling up a falling bridge blazing from the ground up. The plot holes here are huge but producer Tim Burton makes sure the viewers don’t have enough time to contemplate them (his Dark Shadows was written by none other than Seth Grahame-Smith, by the way), and then again most people are having so much fun they don’t need to answer a question like ‘Why didn’t the vampires kill Lincoln before he became President?’
This is exactly the kind of movie that gives you a thrill and shakes you up a bit (the mockbuster Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies is also out, if you are interested). Some visuals are stunning and rarely before seen (flying horses, anyone?), and they pretty much substitute for the lack of substance here.
Verdict: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is good fun. If a little queasy.
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