Priest

The graphic novel adaptation Priest has hit theatres this weekend. It stars Paul Bettany in the lead role as Priest. Alongside him is his partner Cam Gigandet as Hicks. They are later joined by Maggie Q as Priestess. Karl Urban plays the bad guy known as Black Hat who has arranged the kidnapping of Priest's niece Lucy, played by Lily Collins. It's this kidnapping of Lucy that forms the basis of the plot.

In this world humans and monstrous vampires have always existed together. These vamps are real monsters. They look more alien than anything in a Twilight movie. There is also a third category: the "familiars," those humans that have been infected by the vamps. They don't turn into whole vamps like what we're used to seeing in the movies. They become hybrids and look and act more like traditional movie vampires. In recent times it was discovered that priests, who could fight as warriors, were the only humans really capable of subduing the vampires. But after the war was over the church and society (the two aren't really separated) placed the priests back into regular life and they came to be treated as outcasts. But our main character Priest comes out of retirement, against the church's orders, upon news that Lucy has been taken by the vamps.

Allan's Take:

I really liked the atmosphere in Priest. It's real dark and gloomy looking all the time, although this has become more common in movies of late. I like Priest and Lucy. The performances of both Bettany and Lily were good, though we don't get to see too much of Lily. I felt indifferent to Priestess and Hicks and didn't really care for Black Hat. At first I thought it was bad acting but I came to the conclusion near the end of the movie that it was script writing for Black Hat. Everything he says sounds dumb and cheesy. So I don't think that Urban had a whole lot to work with.

There's alot of slo-mo action sequences throughout the movie that were okay. They were nothing like what we've come to see from Zack Snyder or anything. Also I don't think it was worth paying extra to see it in 3D. There wasn't a whole lot coming out at the audience.

Overall this was an okay movie. It has some really good parts but the main bad thing from me was Black Hat. He was much cooler when he wasn't saying anything

..............RENT IT.

Jared's Take:

To be honest I was disappointed in Priest. The acting was kind of dry and I did not care about the characters at all. The main place that Priest fails in is character development. This is much the same predicament that last year's Jonah Hex found itself in. I did not feel as if I knew enough about the characters to be emotionally invested in them. They could've all been eaten by vampires and I would not have cared one bit. As Allan stated the 3D was really unnecessary and underutilized. I also have a real problem with the back story of Black Hat and how he became such. It feels as if the people making the film threw that in as an afterthought. The acting of everyone involved was sub-par and what makes it painful for me to say that is that I have seen most of the cast act way better in other projects than they did in this film.

The last nitpick I have about Priest is the fact that it feels like half a movie. I cannot count how many times a movie that has a good premise falls short because the full effort was not put into it to make a good movie. As with most movies like this they always have an ending that lingers with the "promise" that more movies in the series are to follow. Priest is no exception to this and more than likely no sequel will be made. If by some miracle one is I sincerely hope it will be better than this one.

FX/TBS It