Months ago, I caught sight of a standee
advertisement featuring a mythical twist on a revered historical character;
while my initial reaction was one of extreme skepticism, a little digging
revealed that the offbeat film premise was actually based on a popular
book. Fast-forward a few weeks and I had
barreled through the 2010 mashup novel and I found myself really looking
forward to the script-to-screen translation that Tim Burton and director Timur
Bekmambetov would produce with Abraham
Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. However,
despite my reverence of the source material and my proclivity for the vampire
horror genre, I couldn’t help but notice some pretty significant shortcomings
in 20th Century Fox’s marketing campaign. After gauging social media awareness and
having first-hand exposure to initial audience reaction to the trailers, I concluded
that very few people took this attempted blockbuster seriously, and even fewer
were actually aware that the film was based on an established book. So, while I myself was eager to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, I didn’t
expect the action fantasy horror film to make any real waves at the box office,
especially when going up against Disney-Pixar’s Brave.
Offering a boldly creative visual
style and some truly exciting action sequences, I certainly enjoyed Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but I
do have to acknowledge that the film itself has a decidedly uneven quality and
limits its appeal to a very specific demographic. While there are some pretty significant
changes from the original novel, the fact that the novel’s author,
Seth-Grahame-Smith, wrote the adapted screenplay, means that the film remains
an altogether faithful and entertaining adaptation. However, the entertaining aspect of the film
takes some time to kick-in, and while the change is welcome, the dramatic tonal
shift highlights the weakness of the narrative’s first half. Benjamin Walker ably portrays the titular
historical figure and Bekmambetov knows how to stage a gory fight, but those
positives certainly aren’t enough to appeal to mass audiences. So, while Abraham
Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is far from a bad film, overlooking the imaginative
execution of the inherently offbeat premise may be too tall of an order for casual
moviegoers.
Overall Recommendation: Medium
