Priest Movie Review

Priest is a film with great potential but slightly failed to deliver. It had a great start but it comes short at the end.

Priest tells of a world where mankind and vampires have waged war for years. Then, mankind won the battle with the help of the Priests, a group of special men and women who have unique abilities. When the war was over, the priests were now left with no purpose. So they were given simple jobs but were hidden. People don’t make contact with them and they don’t make contact with people.

The main plot of Priest is when a niece of one if not the best Priest is kidnapped by a human vampire. Naturally, Priest goes out hunting and tries to rescue his niece. All this seems to be a great story but it is sort of a cliché. Hero rescues the damsel in distress while avenging the death of a family member. Then the villain is someone close to him and he has guilt towards what has happened to the villain. And of course, the hero is now an outcast. This storyline is like a mix of old western films with a mix of Japanese or Chinese cinema.

Priest has a great cast. Paul Bettany delivers a good performance but he still comes short for the film. Maggie Q also joins the action as a priestess but even she still can’t make this thing soar higher. Probably the glue that sticks them together is Karl Urban who plays the lead villain. But he only has a short time to really show off his character. He usually fights in some of the scenes. Probably the best scene is when he is sort of playing a musical maestro as hordes of vampires attack a town. It is like a symphony of death.

Priest has a lot of great action sequences as well as great fight scenes. The effects are well made and it delivers great sound effects as well. But, there is still something lacking to make this film great. The story is probably the main thing that affected the entire film. Despite all the effects, the storyline dragged this film down.

In all, Priest is a train ride with a lot of bumps but you still enjoy the trip. It may be poor in the story section; still, you will enjoy this film. it still has that classic Western feel that gets you going, even if the plot has been made many times. I give it 6.5 out of 10.