PRIEST (PG13)
Release Date: 12 May 2011
Running Time: 87 minutes
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Director: Scott Stewart
Screenplay: Cory Goodman, based on Min-Woo Hyung's "Priest"
Starring: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban
Plot: The film is about a warrior priest (Paul Bettany) who disobeys church law by teaming with a young sheriff (Cam Gigandet) and a priestess (Maggie Q) to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped his niece.
Review: "Priest" comes with a different package when one compares it with other vampire movies. That's the good thing because we never have something so uncommon about its concept. "Priest" ensures you that the vampires look nothing humanoid (like Underworld) or even glimpse themselves sparkling under the basking sun (read Twilight). Vampire is not invoked by any deadly virus (like Resident Evil) but it is explained that they co-exist with human for ages, from some religious point of view. This movie happened to outdo itself after several hiccups in the production, bringing in fear despite its stylish looking; the film may wither on its quality. I'm afraid that's happening.
Based on the Korean comic novel of the same name, Priest is set in an alternative Dystopian world in which the human is facing extinction and fatal threats from the vampires, a ruthless and nasty creature that breeds like an ant, attacking without mercy. The war between the two sides has devastated the world. The human is on the losing bench, not until The Church created an elite spiritual warrior known as "Priests". The majority of the vampire race was killed during the human insurgent, while some of the remainder was placed in reservations. The Church tried to protect the humans by isolating those who believes behind the guarded walls if the city. However, The Church needs no longer of their services hence disbanded.
Not until one day, an unnamed Priest (Paul Bettany) is approached by Sheriff Hicks (Cam Gigandet) who tells him that his brother Owen was mortally wounded; Shannon (sister-in-law) was killed while his niece Lucy (Lily Collins) was kidnapped. He pressed forward for The Church assistance but only to be ignored and dismissed by Monsignor Orelas (Christopher Plummer), the leader of The Church. No longer believing in the power of The Church to protect its citizen, he goes against the order to search and rescue Lucy together with Hicks.
"Priest" is rather unsurprisingly bad. The only good things about the movie are that it is different, sleek and acknowledgedly stylish from other vampire-themed movies. The deep mythology and the conceptual of the movie are pretty amazing, unique and wondrously groomed. One of the more notable scenes from the movie has to be the opening animation that creatively dwelt the connection between the past and the current. Oh boy I like the way they handled the back story and the substances for their action, full stop! That's all until all these unique features were thrown and wasted for arguably disappointing direction and writing.
"Priest" while retains a unique elements for the back story, it fails to grasp the attention of the audience with its uninspiring piece of action adventure. The most fundamental aspect of piece of writing goes terribly wrong because of the bad writing, cheesy dialogue and hammy acting. The pace is uneven by infusing an annoying injunction of trying so hard to scare but without any logical success. Looks pretty much like a tamed down version of gore-feast, but the intensity does not match the premise itself. Dialogue looks silly and cliché too. Fret not, it's bad but not the worst piece of writing I have ever encountered.
In addition to that, "Priest" does not worth the action we might expect. All the actions look hardly believable, intense nor exciting. The climaxes of action ended up been lesser than just a 'hoorah' of silly choreograph, albeit stylish. The fact that the film editing works are so bad should also be taken into consideration as well. The bad editing has made the film more undeserved. The connections between scene transitions looks flaw, discontinue and lost. For fans of the Korean comic this movie is based on, they will be truly despised and disappointed by the outcomes. "Priest" is really bad and not even an Our Father prayer could make it better.
THE RATING:
Story: 2.0
Casts: 2.5
Cinematography: 3.5
Effects: 3.5
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 9.9
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