Priest

Priest had such an expansive advertising campaign accompanying its early summer release it was quite apparent the studio was looking to avoid getting lost in the shuffle. However, as a fairly unknown commodity, the story would have been much better suited with a mid-fall or spring release. It really doesn’t stand a chance.

While they are often strong actors, the star power of Paul Bettany, Maggie Q, Cam Gigandet and Karl Urban is hardly buzz worthy. Script wise, they have very little to work with. The story may be interesting and the pacing strong, but I just can’t begin to fathom why stereotypically cheesy one-liners still find their way into major film releases. Gigandet delivers many of them, in an almost cringe worthy performance. Unfortunately it seems that he picked up some bad habits from his stint in Twilight. The other three were good, but not great.

There’s no denying the story has its moments. The vampires are monsters with almost no human qualities, which will likely annoy vampire traditionalists. However, it does help prevent the viewer from feeling any sympathy for the villains. After a while though, Urban’s presence as an actual actor among CGI minions is a breath of fresh air, even if his intriguing character is underdeveloped. Another attention-grabbing aspect of Priest is the post-apocalyptic city controlled by the Church, which comes with grimy steel confessionals patrolled by armed guards. But a short while into the film, Bettany’s character leaves the city and the viewer goes with him, never to return for more than a few sporadic moments.

Priest is a second tier sci-fi film that struggles to integrate important elements (damsel in distress, hot shot young sheriff) on to the screen. So when you add up the movie’s best-developed aspects, it proves to be for sci-fi enthusiasts and comic book fans. There are also a number of instances where horror film influences shine through. But it’s not like I jumped every time a vampire flew out at the audience… I did actually. (6.8 out of 10)