One Minute Movie Review: Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter

The director of Wanted, Timur Bekmambetov, brings this novel to the silver screen in one of the most peculiar efforts in mixing historical fact with outlandish fiction that I have ever witnessed. Slow to start, clunky in the middle, but provides a fairly impressive pay out at the end, this odd tale of the greatest president who ever lived beginning his young life as a slayer of the undead is both difficult to comprehend and yet somewhat engaging. The special effects are so specialized, and over the top they look more like a high tech video game more than an enhancement to the film with considerable over use of the Slo Mo cam. The overall acting and interaction between characters feels two dimensional and at some points, stale. Even the rivalry between honest Abe and the lead vamp Adam never truly makes a connection with the audience. The love story between Lincoln and Mary Todd fares even worse. Benjamin Walker, looks and sounds like Lincoln, but that authenticity is over whelmed by under whelming performances by him and his fellow cast mates. Visually stunning, to say the least, but that can't carry a film, especially one with such story weight. The plot is intricately woven, but you need talent to bring that story to life, make it seem real, and, unfortunately, that never happens. The conclusion is impressive but predictable, an indication of where most of the movie's budget went.  Ultra violent and bloody, sometimes to ridiculous levels.  Most troubling is the way this feature characterizes the fight against the atrocity of slavery in such a comic book style.  1 out of 5 Kernels: a film that is difficult to digest, overtly laden with effects, and the only genuinely scary aspect of the undead in this feature, was their acting.