Superhero Media: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Another one a bit out of left field, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was something I watched on a whim, yet again whilst painting Superhero miniatures. I'm glad of two things, one, that I didn't pay to watch this film, and two, that I've been playing Empire of the Dead of late and that I've been thinking about Vampiric silliness a bit. In terms of story, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is about what one would expect; a young Lincoln encounters Vampires when one kills his mother and is set upon a path to hunt them down by a mysterious benefactor. In terms of story, the film isn't actually too bad; it's cheesy and a bit silly, but doesn't muck about with history too much, it was very close to being a fun romp. 

Where the film falls down is in the effects, stunts and sound mixing. I know complaining about the sound mixing may be going a bit heavy on the film graduate vibe, but I honestly couldn't hear the dialogue half the time because the background noise and soundtrack were far too loud. Speaking of the soundtrack, with all of the fantastic music that came out of the American Civil War, why go with a synth-rock soundtrack? It's just distracting. As distracting is the overuse of CGI in every single fight scene, making parts of the film look like a video game cinematic. Finally, I don't know what the stunt team were doing, but none of the fighting or gunplay looks at all realistic, I've seen more convincing use of firearms in Z-Grade shlock out of South East Asia. 

If you can put up with its many flaws, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter makes alright fodder for VSF/Colonial Horror or Superhero games, especially Empire of the Dead. I certainly won't be watching it again anytime soon, but given the 10 odd miniatures I painted while watching, I don't feel that it was time wasted.