I have to wonder if studios realize just how laughable some of their movies are.

There are plenty of off-the-wall movies out there, and a good deal are enjoyable when they embrace their B-movie material. It’s when movies take themselves too seriously, though, that I think it can really put off audiences.

I think that’s what happened when “Cowboys & Aliens” came out last year. It was an action blockbuster, but I imagine there were a lot of people who couldn’t get past the title or the story that combined those two genres.

And I think that “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” is going to see the same results.

The movie is set for a summer release (June 22), and it is based on the novel of the same name, which was written by Seth Grahame-Smith, author of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” The movie centers around Lincoln, who decides to kill vampires and “their slave-owning helpers” after his mother is killed by a supernatural creature.

Despite that plot line, the recently released trailer did look fairly decent as a whole and it has a good cast (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Dominic Cooper, Alan Tudyk, Rufus Sewell, Benjamin Walker and Anthony Mackie) as well as a good director (Timur Bekmambetov). What the trailer also does, however, is pretend that this will be a huge action movie that everyone will go see.

And I find it hard to take it seriously when there’s something excruciatingly funny about seeing Abe Lincoln slaying some vamps with an axe.

The trailer focused on a lot of younger Lincoln, so we don’t see too much of a vampire slayer complete with Lincoln beard and stovepipe hat. But, it still ends with the scene of a full-costumed older Lincoln taking out the bad guys – and it’s not something I think people will be able to prevent themselves from laughing at.

But like the first trailer for “Cowboys & Aliens,” the trailer for “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” ends with the notion that audiences won’t be chuckling in their seats or talking about how awful of an idea it was to make this into a movie. Though the book is a best-seller (from a humorist) and more people may be aware of it than they were about the “Cowboys & Aliens” comic book, I think there’s still a huge obstacle to overcome with turning a popular historical figure into an action star.

The trailer is still only a teaser, and it’s hard to tell if there will be much room for comedy (though Tudyk’s presence is usually an indication of some joking around), but I think the movie is heading for another box office failure with its serious take on what really shouldn’t be that serious.

What do you think of the trailer? Do you think people will see the movie or will it be a box office bomb this summer?

Read more: http://cumberlink.com/news/opinion/blogs/now_showing/movie-blog-taking-laughable-movies-seriously/article_a74dc7de-57d9-11e1-ae6e-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1mTkBFgcf