Review of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) by John A — 08 Oct 2014

The thing that drives me nuts about about most critics is the hypocrisy. When the original novel AL:VH came out they praised the book for taking it's premise seriously knowing full well that the humor came from how seriously it was taking itself.

Now the film adaptation is out and it very clearly is doing exactly that and now the consensus seem to be ridiculing the film for the exact same reason. MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MINDS!!! I wanted to see the film primarily cause I'm a big Bekmambetov fan and after my wife praised the book I immediately jumped on board.

As I commenced to read it I got very excited to see the film. I loved how the film bravely strayed for many story elements of the book while simultaneously keeping to the essential formula that makes the book work.

It expects us to simply accept as gospel (within the sphere of the film's reality) that one of our greatest leaders was fighting many battles long before he ever became president, and there is a sublime sense of bravery in the fact that the filmmakers wanted to simply make a concept film that unashamedly embraced the absurdity with total conviction.

I do feel it glossed over some essential development of Lincoln as a Hunter in the beginning, sure training montages are cliche but I'll be damned if they arent still entertaining. Not to mention I would have liked to have seen some resistance to him on the campaign trail particularly since his competition in the book was also a vampiric disciple.

Nevertheless AL:VH is my Speed Racer of 2012. A film that will tragically get a bad rap, and one that I will wholeheartedly defend.