Movie Review: Priest (2011)

Synopsis: In a dystopian future, a centuries-long war between humans and vampires has left the Earth in ruins. Humans now live in walled cities under the control of the church while vampires live on reservations and the warrior priests that won the war for the humans have been retired and reassigned to other jobs.
When a vampire pack attacks his brother and kidnaps his niece, Lucy, a former priest is forced to go against the wishes of the church and attempt to rescue her only to discover he is facing something more powerful than he's ever faced before.

Who's in it? The movie stars Paul Bettany, Lily Collins, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet and Maggie Q.


Review: The only reason why I considered watching this movie with my wife yesterday evening was I realized it had been a while since we had seen a vampire film. I had my doubts about it. But, it wound up being better than I expected.

I'm going to start out by saying there was very little that was overly unique about this film. In fact, there were times when it reminded me of a bizarre combination of Judge Dredd and Resident Evil. The movie also didn't leave a whole lot to the imagination. There was quite a bit about it that was a little too predictable, including the identity of the super vampire Priest (Bettany) was tracking down.

That being said, the film still managed to be fairly decent, at least in my opinion, mostly because the action scenes were both entertaining to watch and came relatively frequently. In comparison, I've seen way too many "action" films that got too bogged down with a complicated plot, character development, etc.

I also liked the fact there was a villain that was superior to the hero in every way. This meant the final battle was a little less predictable than it normally would be because there was no apparent way for Priest to gain the upper hand, especially since he was also trying to keep Lucy (Collins) safe at the same time.

My only real complaint is I wish the movie would have been a little less vague about Priest and his abilities. It hinted the priests were chosen by the church, sometimes as kids and sometimes as adults, but never really explained it much further than that. Did they really get God-like powers or was there something else that resulted in them being chosen? The movie was OK without that information, but it would have made it easier to understand why the church seemed to be afraid of them too.

Final Opinion: I wouldn't classify it as a great film. But, it proved to be a decent action flick and I did enjoy watching it.

My Grade: C+

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