PRIEST
In a world ravaged by wars between humans and vampires, a renegade priest fights to rescue his niece from the legions of bloodsuckers who seek to transform the young girl into one of them. A battle-weary veteran of the last vampire war, warrior Priest (Paul Bettany) now resides in a heavily fortified city where the ruling Church is a greater menace than any creature of the night. When a pack of vampires abduct Priest's niece (Lily Collins), the vengeful holy man breaks his vows and promises to save the young innocent from a fate worse than death. He can't do it alone, but with a powerful warrior Priestess (Maggie Q) and his niece's boyfriend, a sharp-shooting sheriff (Cam Gigandet), on his side, Priest may have a fighting chance. Stephen Moyer, Karl Urban, and Brad Dourif co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Director: Scott Charles Stewart
Cast: Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Lily Collins, Stephen Moyer,
Christopher Plummer, Brad Dourif
Release Date: May 13, 2011
Rated PG-13 Intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and brief
strong language
Runtime: 1 hr. 27 min.
Genres: Action/Adventure
Review:
Priest is kind of like a dollar store Frankenstein monster of a film. It’s made up of so many sources that it’s hard to keep track of them. Occasionally, director Scott Charles Stewart hits the sweet spot with a few cool visuals or ideas that look like they could spring into something but just never do. Instead, you are left to trudge through a Blade Runner-esque world before heading into a Western-esque post apocalyptic world mixed with as many clichés as you can think of, throw it in a blender and call it a day. Paul Bettany string of truly questionable role selections, he’s really a fine actor, continues here as he looks like a holy roman Jedi while carrying the same demeanor he had in the woeful Legion, also directed by Stewart. Bettany looks like he came straight from that set and just had a quick wardrobe change and went right to work. Not that there’s much he can do given the script but he tries, in fact he’s so serious throughout that he could be passing a diamond as the movie progresses. Cam Gigandet is tasked with being his partner in their heroes quest and he distractingly bad in a bad film. Gigandet reads lines like a first year acting student, leaving you wondering if that was really the best take they could possibly get from him or if everybody was just in a rush to go home. The lovely Maggie Q looks lovely and cool in limited screen time. Karl Urban is mostly wasted as the villain here, in the sparse amount of time he’s given he looks like he’s begging to do some actual work but just isn’t ever asked. Christopher Plummer and Brad Dourif pass through on their way to other films. The strange thing and probably biggest sin Priest commits is that’s its actually fairly watch able, helped by it’s scant run time and brisk pacing, if it actually had any sort of worthwhile script it might have made for a solid B movie.
C-
Karl Urban was wasted but you have to admit that he looked good in that hat ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe idea behind Priest was much better than the execution which is a shame as it had a pretty strong cast
Urban did look good, I like the guy and can admit he's a good looking guy, just wish they would have used him.
ReplyDeleteJust home from seeing this. I agree the acting was poor overall. Karl Urban was acting well beneath himself. But still it was a suprisingly watchable movie...if you leave your brain out of gear! There were some great visuals but the script clanged at times.
ReplyDeleteI think it superior to Comwboys & Aliens and just wished more attention had been put in as it had all the right ingredients, it was just the execution that let it down.
Brent, I have to agree with you. I was surprised at how watchable it was which just made me wish it’d been better put together. It could have really been something very fun if there had been a better script.
ReplyDeleteCowboys and Aliens left me bored, so I’m right there with you. At least this kept me mildly entertained.