Priest - Film review

Priest
A; Action
Dir: Scott Stewart
Cast: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q
Rating: '1/2

When there's a war going on, the soldiers manning the borders are our heroes. In peacetime, one takes them for granted. In this film, the soldiers are the priests and the bureaucrats are the senior clergy members.u00a0 The enemy at the gates are vampires. They're not Pattinson types, though. They're big, ugly and something that feels left over from the Underworld or Resident Evil sets.



Most of the public has retreated to cities under the protection of bishops of some sort. Those infected by vampires are pushed into reservations. The rest of the world is a dead wasteland that's fraught with dangers of the unknown kind.

One troubled priest in particular (Bettany) receives news of an attack on his brother's family. His daughter has been abducted. The enemy is someone from his past ufffd Paul Bettany as the no-nonsense warrior on a personal mission is aptly cast. You can feel the burden of the film on his shoulders. The movie looks and feels like a post-apocalyptic western, especially during the film's climax. That's something you haven't seen before. While props and costuming impress, there's little else to delight in.

The action scenes on the bikes and hand-to-hand combat scenes leave a lot to be desired. Gigandet (last seen in The Roommate) has an annoying demeanour. One wonders why Maggie Q bothered with this wham-bam quickie at all. There's nothing here that you haven't heard of before. Films like Book Of Eli, the latter Resident Evil instalments had more bite than this one. Wonder what prompted the rush ufffd This one makes you pray for deliverance. Avoid it like the sin.