Bekmambetov, the Kazakhstan-born director whose 2008 action hit “Wanted” was such a stylish, sexy thrill, weirdly stages set pieces that are muddled and hard to follow — a horse stampede, for example, or the climactic brawl aboard a runaway train.

The murky (and needless) 3-D conversion doesn’t help matters, and it’s a waste of what was probably some lovely cinematography from five-time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel.

[...] once he becomes the Lincoln we actually know — with the beard and the hat and that big, famous speech — it merely feels like he’s playing dress-up rather than embodying the spirit of a towering historical figure.

Enter veteran vampire hunter Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper), a debauched and flamboyant Brit who helps him hone the tools he’ll need but who has an ulterior motive of his own.

The notion that the horrors of slavery should be placed on a parallel with monster horror as entertainment is really rather distasteful, punctuated by the sight of vampires getting gored on a battlefield with Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address in the background.