Well it turns out that America's first superhero banner is no longer fitting for Captain America and the Avengers Initiative, who have quite unceremoniously discovered rugs to be pulled from their feet by none other than America's 16th President; Abraham Lincoln, who is actually closeted vampire hunter. Honestly, Honest Abe, who would've thought?
The untold story of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" sheds new light on Lincoln and his concealed axe-wielding vampire hacking days that eventually led to his rise to the presidency; recounting his battles through the Civil War and slavery years among other historical events in a new perspective that all draw a connection to the immortal infestation that once lingered during his tenure.
While the title of the movie itself may have garnered some ridicule and chuckles (yes, we know it was you in the cinema!), here's why we think you shouldn't let the gimmicky sounding B-grade movie title fool you, lest you be an ignorant moviegoer (or a Robert Pattison fan).
Rising Star
It is risky to cast a virtually unknown actor as a lead, and especially since the movie is produced by Tim Burton, one might even think his long time muse Johnny Depp may have cut it. But wait, 29-year-old Benjamin Walker may possess a fairly new resume that consist of a Broadway role or two, and a supporting role or few, but still, the actor who bears a doppelganger resemblance to a young Liam Neeson and who also has experience taking on Presidential roles (Walker played the 7th President in the Broadway play "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson"), managed to beat actors Adrien Brody, Eric Bana and Josh Lucas to don Lincoln's top hat. And hey, in case you didn't know, let me save you the Wiki trip; Walker is Meryl Streep's son-in-law.
Action & Gore
As per the usual Hollywood fashion, the 'safer' your rating is then better your chances to rake in the unfiltered masses for the big blockbuster bucks. But we have to warn you that it isn't the case here, so thread precariously, abandon all hope ye squeamish who enter here! Rated 18 without any cuts made for the local release, expect no fast jump cuts, swishing trickery editing or overly jerky camera angles do distract you from the full-on violence depiction in the movie. We'd reckon Honest Abe to be swift competition to "Saw's" Jigsaw as his axe wielding moves chop limbs and hands with fountains of blood showering the screen. Well, speaking of the axe, that leads us to...
The Weapon
Thor has his hammer, The Bride her katana, Katniss her arrows and Gandalf his staff, which leaves us with Lincoln's weapon of choice; his axe, which surely matches up with the rest or else it wouldn't be prominently featured in the posters as well as the trailer. Historically, Abe was quite the woodsman, in the movie however, vampire hunter Abe pushes a notch higher and puts his skill to an even better use with a modified axe that's not only perfect to hack heads off vampires, but also to serve as a projectile-firing mechanism allowing the handle to serve as a gun. Now if that kind of innovative attitude at times of bleak technology is not making the most out of your era, I don't know what is.
History made fun
If political movies like "The Iron Lady", and "Frost/Nixon" bore you to death, then what better way is there to enjoy history laced with a dash of supernatural fiction for that extra finesse? Can you imagine if this movie was just a plain old biopic of the 16th president? Well, actually there are quite a number of straight-up Lincoln adaptations; "Abraham Lincoln" (1930), "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1940) and the upcoming "Lincoln" (2012) by Spielberg which we bet you had never heard of before, and will (perhaps) never plan to watch. Hopefully this mash-up genre spark will ignite other historical stories to life with fictional supernatural elements embedded within, like the Renaissance period, the Byzantine Empire, the Holocaust, the Romanovs or even Nostradamus.
No sissy vampires
Expect no sparkly Robert Pattison, a seductive Lestat or even the rugged vampire neighbour next door Jerry, the vampires in "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" are pure blood lusting, conniving mongrels of the grotesque kind. So that's already more 'bad-assery' than one can expect as the nemesis of a president who instead of fighting rebels, terrorists or an economic crisis, is fighting vampires! Plus, who'd better to play the head villain vampire other than English actor Rufus Sewell who is often taking up wicked roles in movies such as; "The Knight's Tale" , "The Legend Of Zorro", "Helen Of Troy" and "The Illusionist". A match worthy of Abe and his axe we must say.
Kick-Ass BTS team
In the words of Abe himself, "A house divided against itself cannot stand", so thankfully the Behind-The-Scenes team consisting of producer Tim Burton, producer-director Timur Bekmambetov and novelist-screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith had combined forces to be the trio responsible for the movie. In 2010, Burton and Bekmambetov paired up to purchase the film's rights for the novel authored by Grahame-Smith who was just hot of the press promoting his other mash-up novel "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" which was very well received (and currently being adapted to a movie). While the film was undergoing the pre-planning stages, Burton took on Grahame-Smith to pen his "Dark Shadows" movie, and the author was then hired again to generate a screenplay from his own novel for "Abraham Lincoln". The result is an original piece of work, with dark undertones and awesomely executed action scenes planned by the man behind "Wanted", Bekmambetov himself.
