 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Tagline: The war is eternal. His mission is just beginning. In a post-apocalyptic world, a savage war between man and vampire raged for centuries. A warrior priest (Paul Bettany) receives word of fresh attacks but now it's personal, his niece has been kidnapped by a new hive of merciless vampires. To save her, he must break his vow of peace and hunt down the hive before it's too late. Based on the acclaimed graphic novel and packed with bloodthirsty action, this full throttle crusade takes you on the hunt for a deadly new breed of killer. 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 who 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 daughter's boyfriend, a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills. Written by Screen Gems Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, August 11, 2011 -- To go against the church is to go against God. Apparently, Hollywood studios have figured out that it doesn't take much ingenuity or originality to entertain people anymore. What was once a medium for exciting new material or at the very least creative and fun mindless entertainment has become a cesspool of recycled ideas, poor plots, bad acting, and wholly unimaginative execution. Except for the truly atrocious few movies that earn the derision of even the average moviegoer, most modern pictures enjoy at least a semblance of success within the mainstream. So long as they're polished and their failings are covered up by slick directing, a palpable atmosphere, and computer trickery, most audiences will gladly fork over a few dollars for the privilege of being entertained by repetitive, unimaginative, and wholly worthless drivel that passes for everyday cinema in 2011. Priest is the latest ultra-stupid motion picture that features a slick veneer but absolutely no substance and, if it were possible, negative originality. It's an atmospheric and energetic but wholly generic motion picture that seems to borrow an idea, scene, line of dialogue, setting, character, or anything and everything else from some other, usually better, movie. It's the very definition of worthless cinema; it might look good on the surface, but this is one movie that's truly only skin-deep. For all of history, man has battled vampire in a vicious war that devastated both sides and the world each calls "home." Unfortunately, the tide turned against man. Facing total defeat, mankind retreated behind the walls of the church where a select few known as "Priests" were trained in the art of warfare and built from the ground-up to wipe out vampires forever. With this new weapon in his arsenal, man rose from the ashes and vanquished the vampires -- or so he thought. Their services no longer needed, Priests were left to fend for themselves amongst average citizens, their skills no longer needed and their very purpose in life abruptly taken from them. Now, a new vampire threat is on the rise. When one of the church's most prized and skilled killers (Paul Bettany) learns that his family has been attacked by vampires and his niece Lucy (Lily Collins) has been taken prison by an evil force, he sets out against the church's wishes and, with the help of a Western sheriff by the name of Hicks (Cam Gigandet), vows to eliminate the new threat and retrieve his niece. Meanwhile, the church has summoned additional Priests to track down the rogue killer, prevent him from carrying out his mission, and return him dead or alive for final judgment. Give Priest credit where credit is due. For as unoriginal as the film ultimately may be, it expertly combines a whole host of genre styles into one big and fairly coherent (if not still completely generic) motion picture. It's a Religious Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Horror Western, and it somehow balances all of those elements quite well, never overstating any single angle -- aside from the religious premise -- while seamlessly blending a black and blue depressing darkness with blinding and dry Western elements. But that's where the good stops and the bad starts. Priest is all about the superficial. It's as if Director Scott Charles Stewart -- who is the man behind the equally-ludicrous religiously-based flop Legion -- spent so much time guaranteeing that Priest would look and sound great that he completely forgot that there's more to a movie than its veneer. Not only is his plot completely derivative and lacking even a drop of originality -- it's a slick, odd, religious, end-of-the-world take on The Searchers -- his landscapes and atmosphere are lifted straight out of superior pictures, too. Whether the dark, seedy, electronically-dominated nighttime cityscape shots that are straight out of Blade Runner only replacing the commercialism with religiosity or the dusty Western venues-meet-high-tech action and excitement that look like something from Serenity, the picture just can't escape the feeling that every last little droplet of information has been taken from another source. To make matters worse, the movie is so full of eye-rolling nonsense that even the bread-and-butter action scenes are ruined by grossly clichéd dialogue or ridiculous and overdone circus stunts and special effects. Priest is simply a rehash of the sort of action found in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It recycles the basic build of the no-eyes, all-mouth special effects creatures that look as of they've been lifted straight out of the Silent Hill and Resident Evil previsualization archives. And it boasts the corniest, unimaginative, just-get-the-script-done dialogue that's both laughably predictable and cringe-worthy at the same time. Imagine sitting down to write something like Priest and envision the total lack of creativity that's necessary to come up with a line that goes something like "no, this is only the beginning" to end the movie or a reading of the Biblical passage that states "yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for Thou art with me" as a precursor to brandishing bladed cross-shaped weapons that will fillet a bunch of those generic CGI creatures, and in slow motion to boot. Yes, it's that sort of movie, and yes, it borders on genre Parody. It's laughably bad, and even for as competently put together as it may be from a technical perspective and for the fair amount of potential that does exist within the basic idea, Priest just crumbles around its own insistence on doing everything so by-the-book that by the time the movie is over it's difficult to remember anything but just how incredibly bad it is. Priest isn't worth the meager 87 minutes its asks of its audience. It's competently put together from a technical perspective, but forget any sort of originality in any area of the production. It's just a re-imagining of bits and pieces from other, mostly better, movies, and there's no artistic or thematic value of which to speak. This is big studio entertainment at its low point. Through sheer force of dollars thrown its way and a cast and crew that's at least competent, the movie just barely avoids the absolute bottom of the barrel. All that Priest is really good for is to serve as an example of a movie that's just blatantly unoriginal, but sadly such movies abound these days, effectively taking away its only real "positive." Sony's Blu-ray 3D release of Priest delivers a technically steady but dimensionally underwhelming 1080p Blu-ray 3D transfer, the same killer lossless soundtrack as found on the 2D-only release, and two new extras. Ultimately, there's no real reason to spend extra money on this 3D version. Skip it. (Based on Comic Book) [CSW] -4- I liked the strange mix of eyeless (horror) monster vampires, post apocalyptic world, mixed retro-technology, vicious martial arts action, and even a heavy spaghetti-western influence. Although it is very dark (which precluded meaningful 3D) through most of the movie it manages to truly mixes all the elements of an Action | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller. This movie is definitely not for everyone but I enjoyed it and plan to add it to my collection. Since the 3D Blu-ray includes the 2D version and even though this film is probably too dark for good 3D as well as it being a 2D-to-3D conversion, I might as well get the 3D version and see how it work out. [V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 9.5/10 -- D-Box motion greatly enhanced this movie! Notable D-Box and 3D effects.
Cast Notes: Paul Bettany (Priest), Karl Urban (Black Hat), Cam Gigandet (Hicks), Maggie Q (Priestess), Lily Collins (Lucy Pace), Brad Dourif (Salesman), Stephen Moyer (Owen Pace), Christopher Plummer (Monsignor Orelas), Alan Dale (Monsignor Chamberlain), Mädchen Amick (Shannon Pace), Jacob Hopkins (Boy), Dave Florek (Crocker), Joel Polinsky (Dr. Tomlin), Josh Wingate (Familiar), Jon Braver (Familiar). IMDb Rating (06/02/12): 5.7/10 from 49,344 users IMDb Rating (09/28/11): 5.7/10 from 27,018 users
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