Daryl Crowther reviews Paul Bettany's all action, man vs vampire film, Priest.
For centuries humans and vampires had been at war leaving the world world a savage wasteland and forcing humans to retreat into dystopian cities controlled by the churches and live only to do a hard day’s work. Here they trained an army of priests who defeated the vampires once and for all. Believing the threat to be over, the order of the priests is disbanded and the priests themselves have been reintegrated into society.
Paul Bettany plays one such priest who gets a visit from a small town sheriff from the wastelands telling him his brother has been injured and his niece kidnapped by vampires. Turning to the clergy for help he is told that there are no vampires and to go on this personal crusade would be to go against God. Not being one to follow orders ‘Priest’ (he has no actual name) sets out anyway. His previous comrades in arms (including Maggie Q) are sent out to find Priest and bring him back and soon realise the threat to mankind is greater than anyone could have imagined.
In a change to the majority of vampire themed movies, Priest’s vampires are far removed from the garden variety human-esque bloodsuckers you would usually find. Instead they look much more monstrous than that and live in hives inside mountains. That is except for Black Hat (Karl Urban) who was turned by the vampire queen herself.
The plot of Priest is nothing to write home about. There is little dialogue of any substance throughout the film and while none of the actor’s performances are stand out it has to be said they seemed to be given very little to work with.
Where the script lets the film down, the action sequences and effects do their best to make up for it. At around 90 minutes long the film moves at a fast pace and you are never more than a few minutes from a gun fight, explosion or a priest throwing his holy ninja death crosses into a few vampires.
Although I don’t think you will find it troubling the selectors at many award ceremonies this year, the offer of some good action scenes means Priest is still worth watching despite its lacklustre plot.
6/10
