Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Not so Honest Abe?

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - (2½ Stars)

What if Abe Lincoln was not just one of the most revered presidents, but also one of the most prevalent vampire hunters in American history? That's what Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter posits. So before he was working on freeing the slaves, he was attempting to rid America of vampires. The movie is based on the book by Seth Grahame-Smith (who also wrote "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies").

Now my review may be slightly biased based on the fact that I've read the book (more than once), but I would figure. What worked in the book, an adherence to the historical facts of Abe Lincoln's life with vampire hunting shoehorned in where it could, is what they depart from in the movie. The strangest part of all this is that it was the author of the book, Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote the screenplay for the movie. Apparently he wasn't too fond of his original work and decided to "generic" it up.

Overall, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter took an interesting, unique idea and made it a pretty generic, albeit visually entertaining, action movie. The "set pieces" (not sure how many actual, physical sets were used) all help to create aesthetically pleasing mood for the movie and Benjamin Walker does a decent job as our nation's 16th vampire hunting president, but the movie just comes across as underwhelming.
(105 minutes - Rated R for violence throughout and brief sexuality - 2012)