Priest Review

After the spate of post-apocalyptic movies that flooded the multiplexes a year or two ago (The Road, The Book of Eli, 2012, Terminator Salvation, 9),Priest arrives somewhat late to the party. This adaptation of a Korean comic book peaks incredibly early with its animated prologue sequence, in which we learn that in an alternative reality, a church-governed mankind has been at continual war with vampires and it has only been the introduction of the ninja-like Priests that has turned the tide in humanity’s favour. The defeated vampires were herded into reservations and the Priests were in turn disbanded and shunned by the society they protected. Some years after the war, a small rural outpost is attacked by vampires and Lucy (Lily, daughter of soft-rocking, tax-dodging Phil, Collins) a young woman, is kidnapped. The local sheriff Hicks turns to her uncle, a Priest (known only as ‘Priest’), to track her down. Going against the ruling of the church, Priest sets off to find Lucy and kill any vampires that stand in his way.

Having seen the awful trailer, I had incredibly low expectations for Priest. Perhaps it is unsurprising that they were exceeded. That’s not to say the film isn’t problematic, but rather than ninety minutes of mindless idiocy as I was expecting, I instead got a strong fantasy adventure set in an at times fascinating and visually arresting world. Priest’s best ideas – apart from the aforementioned prologue sequence – are in the fictional society it has created. Rather than becoming more secularised as our society is becoming, the world of Priest has turned to religion, allowing the church to govern. Early on, Priest uses a walk-in confessional booth as naturally as one might enter a phone box. It is a bit disappointing then that the action quickly forces Priest out of the city (which has more than a little bit of the aesthetic of both Judge Dredd’s Mega-City One and the dystopian Los Angeles from Blade Runner about it) and on the run in the open country.

Apart from the great production design (I really liked the cool, jet engine motorbikes); other good aspects of the film include likable performances from Cam Gigandet (who played a far more attractive vampire than Priest’s eyeless gribblies in Twilight) as sheriff Hicks and a none-more scenery-chewing turn from Karl Urban as the film’s baddie, named, I kid you not, ‘Black Hat’ (because he wears a black hat). Paul Bettany is solid in the titular role and Maggie Q (as ‘Priestess’) has little to do with her slight character but does kick some arse delightfully towards the film’s end.

Unfortunately, there are problems with the film. Firstly, there is an overriding sense that the film is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is and is all too po-faced when its tongue should be in its cheek. Additionally, it is shot in incredibly high contrast, making interior scenes all too dark and exterior scenes way too over-saturated, to the effect that it’s almost like watching a black and white film at times. The plot is too keen to get to the next action sequence, so character development is skipped over, meaning that by the end, we don’t really care too much who lives and dies. There’s also a twist you really should see coming and a pointless set-up for a sequel. And despite my enjoyment of the fictional universe, it has all been done before elsewhere – not necessarily in better ways, but the film is far from original.

In spite of these issues, though, it was difficult to get too annoyed with Priest. It more or less stands by its own internal logic and delivers pretty much what it promises – folk with dodgy facial tattoos fighting ugly CGI monsters in slow motion and 3D. Go in peace, my son.