It’s very seldom that I get to see a movie on it’s opening day but I made an exception with this one since I was really dying to see a film after having been put off on what “Prometheus” was all about from far too many of my friends in the media realm. Granted a few of my buddies enjoyed it, but the real Science Fiction and Comic Book purveyors that I confide in all left me feeling I would be disappointed. That one we wait for DVD I guess. Anyways, the trailer for “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” struck me as interesting and rather clever so I marked it on my calendar to see and this afternoon I did just that.
The film presents the secret life of our nations beloved 16th President who ends up becoming a vampire slayer as he seeks revenge for the murder of a loved one. The core of the film takes place in his life as a young man and there is a lot of action, a decent amount of vampire gore and some really cool special effects. Without going too deeply into the plot, the story illustrates how vampires had infected our still young country and were a menace that needed to be eliminated at all costs. We see how they added extra menace in the Civil War and seek to make the United States of America a country of vampires. That’s all I am saying about the plot since this is even the Wikipedia entry for the film spoils the whole thing. Check out the trailer link that was posted HERE to see some of what I am outlining here.
Benjamin Walker plays Lincoln while Dominic Cooper is Sturgess, his trainer in the art of hunting vampires. Rufus Sewell does a great job as Adam, the sinister leader of the vampire hordes in this Tim Burton/Timur Bekmambetov co-produced bit of coolness. When we were in the theater I had to admit that I originally thought that this might have been based on a comic book but I was incorrect. There is an actual book which was written by Seth Grahame-Smith and he also adapted the screenplay for the film which was a pleasant surprise. To me that means that the film is a lot closer to the book than you might have gotten otherwise. You can order a copy via Amazon.com below. I know I am going to do that soon, and definitely will be picking up this movie on Blu-ray when it is released. I still have a few weeks to wait before “The Amazing Spider-Man” is released but I can honestly say that this is a two thumbs up recommendation and a hell of a good ride from beginning to end. Perhaps I need to say “two-horns up” since we are a Metal site after all.
Official Film Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln:_Vampire_Hunter
The Asylum knockoff Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies was better.