4.3 Stars (out of 5) - Rated R

Synopsis

Honest Abe: he was the 16th president, the Great Emancipator ... and a righteous slayer of the undead spurred to action by his mother's vampiric murder. History and legend are both turned upside-down as Lincoln tracks the creatures of the night.

Starring:

Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rufus Sewell, Jimmi Simpson, Robin McLeavy, Alan Tudyk, Marton Csokas, Jaqueline Fleming, Laura Cayouette, John Rothman, Erin Wasson

Director:

Timur Bekmambetov

Blu-ray Release Date:

October, 23, 2012

Subtitles:

English SDH, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Flemish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese

Rating

Overall rating weighted as follows:

Audio 40%, Video 40%, Special Features 20%, Movie - its just our opinion so take it with a grain of salt

Audio 4.4 Stars (out of 5)

Dolby and DTS Demo Discs used as basis for comparison

Subwoofer - 4.0 Stars

Dialog - 5.0 Stars

Surround Effects - 3.5 Stars

Dynamic Range - 5.0 Stars

English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1, Czech: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1, Polish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Turkish: Dolby Digital 5.1, Ukrainian: Dolby Digital 5.1

Since this movie was released in 3D, I expected it to have a better surround mix than it did. My ears were saddened to find out it's a front heavy mix. There is still a little action coming out of the rear speakers like gunshots, flying bats, roaring crackling fires, and of course the sounds of a swinging ax. The low and gets more attention but rumbles and explosions are loose and messing sounding. However, you do nice subwoofer moments with sounds of a train engine, booming cannons, and stampeding horses.

Video 4.3 Stars (out of 5)

Spears & Munsil Benchmark Blu-ray Edition used as basis for comparison

Color Accuracy - 3.5 Stars

Shadow detail - 4.5 Stars

Clarity - 4.0 Stars

Skin tones - 4.5 Stars

Compression - 5.0 Stars

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1, Original Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

The color palette for this movie is all over the place. At night everything has a blue tint, and during the day a brownish tone is easily noticeable. Other scenes are over or under saturated, and at times skin can appear pale or almost orange. It's good to see that very few details are lost in the shadows, since this movie has lots of scenes in the dark. At times it seemed like they made the picture a little fuzzy on purpose. Some scenes were sharp but others looked soft. You are still able to see clothing textures, loose hairs, lots of blood splatters, and bad looking teeth from the 1800's.

Bonus Features 4.0 Stars (out of 5)

Audio Commentary with Writer Seth Grahame-Smith

The Great Calamity (1080p, 7:43): An animated short film with Edgar Allen Poe telling Lincoln the story of Elizabeth Bathory.

The Making of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (1080p, 1:15:21): A five part making-of documentary, the locations, covering the book-to-screen adaptation process, choreography, the makeup, and several cast and crew interviews.

"Powerless" Music Video by Linkin Park (1080p, 2:51)

Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:15)

Sneak Peeks (1080p, 6:25)

Movie - 3.5 Stars (out of 5)

Review

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter is not the type of movie you watch for an accurate depiction of history, great acting, or a heart wrenching story, but what you do get is a fun flick with some decent action scenes. In the wake of Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries, it's nice to see a movie that reminds us that vampires are monsters that want suck our blood ... and they must die. This movie gets right to the point and brings you some good beheading action brought to you by an ax wielding Abe Lincoln. Yes, its laughably silly at times, but it's supposed to be. They do and interesting job of rewriting history and putting vampires in the timeline of our 16th president's life. The acting is decent even though the script it clunky at times, but overall this is a entertaining film best enjoyed with a couple of beers.