Abraham Lincoln: Vampire HunterI liked Timur Bekmambetov's Night Watch Very much and he topped the craziness with the sequel Day Watch. Wanted had to grow on me, but I quite enjoy it now as well. So, I was of course looking forward to this one. Luckily Mark Kermode's review already lowered my expectations, o the disappointment aw limited today.
Just as Kermode pointed out, Bekmambetov's style is much more about, well, style rather than story or characters. That is a bit f a problem here, where so much emphasis is put into trying to make it an emotional story. And while the Night Watch and Day Watch films overcame the shortcoming by putting crazy effects on the screen constantly, that has been reduced here, which is not helpful for this reviewer. But, when the scenes come, Bekmambetov still delivers; there is the stampede scene and also the train sequence later on. The weirdest thing was, when the last scene almost gave promise of a sequel that could be more fun.
Big parts of the problem are the setting (19th century doesn't lend itself I action as much) and the fact that the premise of the film is not quite strong enough to carry the I'm all on its own. Maybe a star could have helped, if only in one of the more prominent supporting roles. All I recognized was Rufus Sewell (even had to look up the name) as the villain and Alan Tudyk in an underused and even uncredited role.
Rating:
