There are plenty of vampire movies going around these days, the Twilight series has reinvented the genre for the teenage romance market and it seems these days that the old fashioned Count in a castle story has taken a step back for its younger successors. No more do vampires cower at garlic, bare their teeth at the sign of a crucifix or fear a stake through the heart. Priest wants to bring back the vampire genre and does it the only way it knows how; with gravelly voiced vampire hunters, CGI monsters and a sci-fi/western theme setting.
Paul Bettany (Legion, The Da Vinci Code) plays a priest who is haunted by the image of a fallen comrade on his last mission to eradicate the vampires from the planet. However a recent attack on his brother's house shows him that there may be more out there and with the Catholic church denying their continuing existence, he may be the only one who can stop them, once and for all.
Partnered by a local gunslinger, Hicks, (Cam Gigandet; Burlesque, Easy A) they go in search of the creatures of the night and Priest's niece, Lucy (Lily Collins; The Blind Side and the forthcoming The Brothers Grimm: Snow White) who has been kidnapped by them.
Legion, the director Scott Stewart's feature directorial debut also starring Paul Bettany, was a modest hit, particularly amongst those who like their monster movies loud and gruesome. So handling Priest, in comparison, is a bigger feat to accomplish, but Stewart handles it well and gives the audience just what they want and what they're expecting.
As the plot unfolds the audience learns that the head of the vampire rebellion is lead by a man only known as Black Hat (Karl Urban; R.E.D., the forthcoming Judge Dredd movie, entitled Dredd) and he is also a former priest (no surprises there considering the opening sequence). Knowing our hero's connection to the young Lucy, he holds her hostage in hopes that he'll take the bait and come after her.
The mixture of western and sci-fi isn't exactly a new one (see Westworld or more recently Serenity) but having the religious themes thrown in for good measure seems a little like the movie is trying to cater for a very wide audience, maybe too wide. After all you can't have vampires without mentioning religion and you can't have otherworldly action without a bit of science fiction. However the western setting seems a little overkill, considering the city where Priest lives is a bit more like Blade Runner rather than the set for True Grit.
Saying that though, visually the movie is beautiful. Stewart has a background in visual effects and just as it showed in Legion, it shows here on a grander scale. Showing that Stewart can lend his creative eye to more than one genre (albeit a subgenre) Priest has the look that you would expect from a dystopian world and equally has the feel of a Western town being overtaken by vampires.
The supporting cast of Karl Urban, Maggie Q (Die Hard 4.0, Mission Impossible 3) and Cam Gigandet are good in their own ways. Urban takes the bad guy role and revels in it, albeit probably waiting for a better role. Gigandet takes on a sort of LaBoeuf character as seen in True Grit and carries it off well, I would guess brought in for women to watch as their boyfriends watched the movie alongside them. Finally Maggie Q plays a Priestess and possible love interest for Priest, in case small minded people thought that the hero may have other leanings (see Morecombe and Wise, Bert and Ernie and Batman and Robin for reference).
With the large scale settings, probably quite predictable plot and mostly Z list supporting cast, Priest gives its audience all it can given the script but most seem to be enjoying themselves (particularly Paul Bettany who adopts an Eastwood-esque growl throughout the movie). Priest may not win many awards (maybe some nods for visual effects) but it is definitely made for an audience to enjoy on a Saturday night and if that's all it wants to accomplish then it has achieved it successfully.
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