It may not be everyone’s cup of tea and, granted, there are quite a few disappointing moments, but I am willing to stick my neck out for this post-apocolyptic vampire slayer movie and say it is not a complete failure.
Although slated by many critics, Priest deserves some praise for its actions sequences, CGI effects, the amazing animation opening sequence and of course the casting of Paul Bettany (Legion, The Da Vinci Code ) in the main role (I may be biased for this reason alone ).
However, the pitfalls occur as director Scott Charles Stewart failed to truly give life to the story inspired by Korean graphic novel by Min-Woo Hyung; it had so much potential but failed to live up to expectations. Another annoying aspect is the 3D, as in Priest it seemed just pointless, there was nothing 3D about it except some ash flakes streaming across the screen. That just annoys me, and most viewers, I would imagine.
Despite the obvious flaws I did find myself hooked, waiting with baited breath to see if the heroes could save the day from the nasty vampires threatening human existence, but then I was let down again as the bad guy, Black Hat (Karl Urban ), was not given enough scenes and it all led to an ending which was a little disappointing, but there could be scope for a sequel here so maybe mistakes will be learnt.
Priest is set in an alternate world which has been ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The tide was turned when the Church trained a number of ‘gifted’ humans, known as priests, who then went on to defeat the vampire menace, pushing them to the point of extinction. Finding it difficult to cope with his memories of the Vampire War, a legendary warrior Priest (Bettany ) now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. However, when his niece is abducted by a pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vow and goes against the Church, which refuses to believe that vampires are back. He ventures out on a quest to save her and is joined on the crusade by his niece’s boyfriend and a former warrior Priestess and together they discover that frightening changes have been made in the vampire pack, who have much grander plans.
It certainly will not be winning any awards but if you are into this kind of movie then it may be worth a look.
Verdict: 3/5
