If you’re not familiar with Timur Bekmambetov, you should be. Visually, he took over where the Wachowski Brothers, i.e. The Matrix, left off in his films Night Watch, Day Watch & Wanted. Unlike them, his themes are not weighted down by deep mythology or philosophical ideas, but he has a simple story in all his films: a young man discovers that the world has many hidden layers, begins to fight against evil & overcomes his normal origins for the greater good. This movie is not as good as the book, but it does give us the world as we wish it would be. It would be easier if slaveholders were vampires instead of human beings; if our politicians had pure motives & could cut through bureaucratic nonsense by kicking butt, if Abraham Lincoln was firmly against slavery instead of willing to compromise; if Mary Todd could have risen to the challenges of her husband’s ascendance instead of descending into understandable madness at the loss of love, riches & reputation. For all the reviewers who complained that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter played it straight & lacked humor, you didn’t get it. There was so much visual humor & the whole premise is amusing that any more overt shenanigans would destroy this movie. I never knew that I needed Abraham Lincoln walking in slow motion, wearing black & being a bad ass, but I did. Great fun & I’m going to be thinking of the implications of a Russian director’s interpretation of an American book on an American hero.