The concept behind Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sounds just crazy enough to work as a film adaptation. An axe-wielding Abe chopping up vampires seems like the perfect recipe for a lighthearted genre-mashing adventure. Instead of taking a humorous approach to this material though, Smith and director Timur Bekmambetov take the ridiculous premise too seriously, which causes the picture to fall flat.
According to the film’s mythology, Abraham Lincoln’s mother is killed by an abusive businessman named Jack Barton when he’s a boy. Lincoln (Benjamin Walker) grows up vowing revenge against Barton, not realizing that the man is actually a vampire. As a result, his initial attempt to kill Barton is a failure, but luckily he is saved by Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper). Sturges patches Lincoln up and trains him how to hunt vampires, so that he can beat Barton next time. In exchange, Lincoln agrees to help Sturges rid the United States of other bad bloodsuckers.
The idea of turning Abraham Lincoln into an action hero is smart given his real-life heroic reputation as President of the United States. It’s sly and entertaining how Smith paints Lincoln’s vampire hunting career a secret chapter in the politician’s life, recounted only through entries in a private diary. Smith also wisely uses Lincoln’s large stature to lend believability to the intense feats of physical strength that the character carries out in the film. However Smith’s inclusion of narration by Lincoln while he’s “writing” in his diary is corny, especially when he says words like “History remembers the battles, but forgets the blood.”
As an action movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is decent. Training montages where Lincoln learns how to twirl his axe are enjoyable even though they’re reminiscent of Highlander and his throwdowns with baddies are fun for their franticness. For the most part, Bekmambetov’s hyper-realistic aesthetic of bold orange sunsets, intense blue fog, and dark grey smoke gel because they provide a solid horror vibe during these sequences. But the movie’s big set pieces feel really fake with their bad CG and its slow-mo takes you out of these scenes by lingering too long on environmental destruction.
Despite Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’s solid premise and action, the film fails big time with its uneven story and uptight characters. The parts of Lincoln’s life that the movie focuses on don’t feel strung together cohesively, particularly as tale jumps from his younger years in Illinois to his days in the Oval Office. As a result, the picture never quite establishes a rhythm. Additionally, Smith’s dialogue is so stiff that it’s hard to like hanging out with any of the characters, including Lincoln itself. Not even talented supporting players like Anthony Mackie, Alan Tudyk, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead can act their way out of this stuffy problem.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is one of those great ideas that would have turned into a great film if the tone had been handled correctly. If the characters and story were more in the vein of modern superhero adaptations with humor and occasional winking at the audience, it could have been a much stronger movie because its mood would match the absurdity of its concept.