Priest is a 2011 American action horror film directed by Scott Stewart from a screenplay by Cory Goodman, based on a graphic novel series by Min-Woo Hyung. The movie stars Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q and Lily Collins.
Plot:
A legendary Warrior Priest from the last Vampire War now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church.
When his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them.
He is joined on his crusade by his niece’s boyfriend, a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills…
Reviews:
“With Priest, the writers have really managed to bring the characters to life and to make viewers sympathetic to their cause. The idea of what these characters are on the outside is flamboyant, but who they are in the inside resonates and that’s what makes Priest engaging entertainment.” Brandon C. Sites review
“Priest glosses right over needed storytelling texture to hit predictable slo-mo action beats, while the vampire/beast community is populated by iffy CG creatures, making the film a plastic run of chaos, removing any serious threat […] I’d like to believe there was once more to Priest than the tedious, hollow, joyless jumble that’s presented here.” Brian Orndorf
“Stewart, who had a distinguished career in visual effects before directing, should look at finding better scripts. Priest is utterly forgettable junk. It may be too short to be truly boring, but it brings nothing to the screen that viewers haven’t seen before.” William Harrison, DVD Talk review
“No movie that I can recall has appropriated more beautifully and more fittingly the graphic-novel style: this looks what a comic book in motion should look like, while also being able to take advantage of the nuances of human expression that living actors — as opposed to static drawings on a page — can bring to a story.” Maryann Johanson, Flick Filosopher review
“It will be easy to tear this fundamentally silly and humourless […] film apart but I found it a highly enjoyable ride. Derivative? Most definitely, but entertaining […] Whilst taking place in a stylised fantasy context, the action is relentless, and often surprisingly brutal.” Stuart O’Connor, Screen Jabber review
“All the stuff with the Priest’s unrequited love interest is especially eye-rolling. And the horror elements don’t work very well as the flick is loaded with the same jump scare (a vampire jumps out of nowhere) over and over.” Mitch Lovell, The Video Vacuum review
” …an unknowingly hilarious, often dull supernatural action flick whose po-faced treatment of its watery comic book source material fails to recognise any of the underlying idiocies of its plot […] the lacklustre gravitas which Priest possesses works against it and it just ends up feeling lazy.” Joe West, We Got This Covered review
Cast and characters:
- Paul Bettany … Priest
- Karl Urban … Black Hat
- Cam Gigandet … Hicks
- Maggie Q … Priestess
- Lily Collins … Lucy Pace
- Brad Dourif … Salesman
- Stephen Moyer … Owen Pace
- Christopher Plummer … Monsignor Orelas
- Alan Dale … Monsignor Chamberlain
- Mädchen Amick … Shannon Pace
- Jacob Hopkins … Boy
- Dave Florek … Crocker
- Joel Polinsky … Doctor Tomlin
Technical details:
87 minutes
Aspect ratio: 2.35: 1
Audio: SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital
