Review Tuesday: In the cinema - PRIEST

Another movie about a war between Humanity and Vampires? YES PLEASE! This time it comes in the shape of an adaptation of the Japanese Comic Book, PRIEST.

 

In an alternate world, humans and vampires are completely different species that have waged war for centuries in an attempt to survive. Vampires, while fewer in numbers, have the advantage of speed and viciousness. Humans really only had the advantage of sunlight, as the development of war technology never really helped all too much. Finally, it took the Church to develop a new weapon. A human weapon. People with special abilities were detected and brought in to be a special team called PRIESTS. This army of Priests were able to stop the vampire menace and were, then, disbanded.

 

That's really where this story really starts. The vampire horde has returned to destroy mankind, being led by some powerful man known only as Black Hat (Karl Urban, Dr. Bones McCoy!). The Priest (Paul Bettany) returns to action because his teenage daughter, Lucy Pace (Lily Collins), was kidnapped by the vampires. He teams up with Lucy's boyfriend, Sheriff Hicks (Cam Gigandet), and a Priestess (Maggie Q) to track down the horde and figure out their plan.

 

***Possible Spoilers***

The movie has some cool special effects and concepts. It's neat thinking of vampires as NON-HUMAN monsters. It's also imaginative that they are hive creatures and have a Queens that spawns them. Surviving the bite of a vampire doesn't kill a human, but makes them a "familiar" and enslaves that person for life.

 

The story works out, and makes sense. It's a pretty simple plot. The good guys are very likable. The villains are vile. It holds your attention. An entertianing movie to be sure. There were a couple scenes that I thought were off, and probably should've been edited out, but in being there didn't hurt anything but the flow, maybe. Also, there were little to NO coming at you special effects, so there really was no need to make this a 3D movie.

And the big surprises:

• Maggie Q was really hot on the screen.
• Dr. McCoy was a very effective villain.
• Better special effects than expected.
• Another vampire movie making the Church a roundabout enemy.

Because of the pieces, the movie felt, to me, like a cross between The Road Warrior, Ultraviolet, Underworld, 30 Days of Night, any Western, and even Bram Stoker's Dracula. It was all blended together rather nicely and made it a fun movie that had the ending wide open for sequels, which are likely NOT forthcoming as this one didn't do well in ticket sales.

 

Check it out while it's still on the big screen. It's worth it to see the gory fight scenes larger than life. Or, just wait for DVD. It'll be out before Christmas for sure.

 

More on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0822847/