Priest, directed by Scott Charles Stewart, stars Paul Bettany (my lemon -flavored love cake), Karl Urban (good lordy you are too fine for words) , Cam Gigandet, Lilly Collins, Maggie Q, Christopher Plummer and Stephen Moyer (yes, that's Bill from TB). Priest started out as a manhwa, a type of Korean comic series, created by artist Hyung Min-woo. While I have not read the series I think that no previous experience would be a good thing as the movie overall lacked a lot of substance....
Storyline:
PRIEST, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, is set in an alternate world -- one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest from the last Vampire War, despite being a famous veteran he 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-happy young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills.
The movie starts out really well, you get to see all the Priests going to hunt down a hive of vamps but it's a set up and my dream man Karl is dragged away by the vamps. A very nice animated bit of storytelling takes place providing exposition on the Priests and how the world has changed. I had no issues so far with anything in the movie, but once Priest sets out to find his kidnapped niece the story starts to fall apart. There are story concepts but are not really explained, for example the audience is introduced to "familiars" but not really told who they are or how they came to be. The vamps don't kill them or do they? Are they slaves? *scratches head* How exactly are these Priests different? What powers do they have? SOMEONE TELL ME! I hope the comic goes far more in-depth about these story elements, but I feel like a lot of stuff got lost in the film adaptation.
Karl and Paul did a fine acting job, these guys are excellent at what they do and I hav
e no
complaints in their ability. Maggie Q and Paul's characters have a major back story that you don't even get to enjoy, I felt the film lost a lot of potential. The best action you see from Maggie is in the trailers, so don't watch those if you want to be surprised. Cam who plays the town sheriff just looked like a lost boy floundering around trying to keep up with everyone, sure he looked good on screen but his character was a little ho-hum. The action was so weak at times that it became hard to invest yourself in the overall film. CGI wasn't bad but I have seen a lot better than this. But the good part is if you like Vamps (like me) you will get to w
atch another new take on them, and you might jump in your seats a few times when the action picks up. :)
Over-all the movie missed its mark for me; while the acting was beautiful and the editing was excellent, a huge plot-hole leaves me scratching my head on this film. I hope Mr. Min-woo is not totally disappointed in this film, and I recommend you either go into it knowing up front that it's missing a lot of meat or just stick to the comics. Proceed with caution.
My good friend Mike who is also our Sheep photographer came with me to see this one and in his words "the movie was weak, the action sucked and I was let down". He gave the film 2 and 1/2 sheep.
I am giving Priest 3 Black Hat Sheep.
KD
That's really to bad. I will go see it anyway but I had hoped it would live up to the comics. Very honest review
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