Genres

Visitors Review

Peter Hollo 2012-05-24 18:41:18

One of the let-down movies of summer, 2011.

Make no mistake: I love spectacular films! They have a lot of visualeffects, CGI monsters, main heroes who occasionally do somethingsupernatural, explosions, entertaining but basic story, etc. They getthe job done if I want to be entertained after a long week of work on aFriday night. A good example of such a film is Michael Bay's TheTransformers.Priest, on the other hand, fails to fall into this category. It isspectacular, though - particular emphasis on the church-controlled citythat protects itself with its massive walls. It often reminded me ofJudge Dredd's Megacity. And the outskirts with their arid lands bear aresemblance to what we can see in any Mad Max movie, or in Denzel'snot-long-ago introduced Book of Eli.But what happened to the audio? When watching the film in one of thecinemas in Budapest, we barely heard anything. All the characters had avery low voice which was suddenly interrupted by loud music. Bettany'svoice was especially low and his character was not really interesting.Hicks, the priest's sidekick, was irritating all along and even KarlUrban failed to successfully "deliver" the bad guy. What a shame!Furthermore, the movie was short, the fighting sequences were cheap(the camera quickly changed positions so one could not really see whatwas going on) and the story could have been much, much better. I hadhigh expectations but Priest was eventually a huge let down. I wasreally looking forward to this and thought the delay of the Hungarianintroduction would do good to this film (instead of spring it waspostponed to summer so it could have been in the same league as theother blockbusters of 2011), but no.Priest fails to entertain and I wish I had picked something else. Thereare a lot more "casual" movies out there so you can easily choosesomething else and avoid this one, except, of course, if you are ahardcore fan.

Eric Melin 2012-05-24 02:23:24

90 minutes of inconsequential action and cliché recycling...painful to watch a semi-interesting setup get squandered and become stuffed into a familiar-as-hell framework where nothing ever seems at stake.

Robert W. 2012-05-23 20:52:18

A solid action flick, unfortunately mediocre

Priest seems like it has all the elements of a worthysci-fi/Supernatural action flick. However, somehow the trailers feltlike it was missing something and sadly that did carry over into thefilm. Certainly it didn't do well compared to its hefty sixty milliondollar budget and that is unfortunate because there is some reallygreat things about Priest. Probably the best thing about the film isthe stunning scenery which likely made up for much of its enormousbudget. Well it doesn't go without notice. The dark gritty, postapocalyptic setting of the film is probably its strongest point andactually make the film worth seeing. The film was (shockingly) not shotin 3D but there would probably have been a point where it would havebeen cool to see in 3D although I am a personal hater of 3D films. Theperformances are decent but a little shallow and that is where the roadbumps begin because the film does feel shallow like there should bemore. The film is less than an hour and a half long and that justdoesn't give anyone enough time to truly unfold a story like this.Priest should have been two hours easy and that could have opened thedoor and this world for future instalments.Talented actor Paul Bettany dons a Priest's robe again (Da VinciCode?)and channels a dark and brooding mysterious man. He staysmysterious as the story doesn't give him enough to really sink histeeth into. But he does an amazing job at playing the action hero andis terrific. He is far too good an actor to waste on a shallowcharacter. Cam Gigandet also falls victim to the shallow character andunfortunately (although I am sure he is a good actor) he sort of slipsbetween the cracks next to Bettany. The two of them have very littlechemistry together but Gigandet does do a decent job as well at theaction hero. He sort of has the rough and tumble cowboy aspect downcold. Obviously no stranger to action films Maggie Q is the deadlyPriestess, another character that could have been explored much better.Q does decently and actually has some chemistry with Bettany but theyare more just there to fight off the vampires and they do well at that.Karl Urban is the face of the main villain and does well but again nodepth and no chemistry with the rest of the cast. The amazingChristopher Plummer has a cameo as the head of the Priests and he doesgood in that cameo. Fortunately he doesn't need a lot depth to hischaracter.Priest is very much like a hack and slash, shoot em up video game. Yourthree main characters go in and destroy vamps and them move on to thenext one. The story is simplistic and never tries to complicate itselfin essence shooting itself in the foot. Why they did this...we willnever know? There is such potential here!! Director Scott CharlesStewart helms the film and there is a lot of similarity between thisfilm and his previous work Legion. Stewart has nearly twenty yearsunder his built working on special effects for many, many huge filmsand it shows because Priest's effects are top notch but where is thestory!! You won't hate Priest, its worth checking out but you'll forgetall about it and it will slip into the cracks of average filmdom. Evenwhen a movie is bad you'll remember it but Priest is just all aroundmediocre. 7/10

2012-05-23 12:07:25

Worthless

This review is from: Priest (Amazon Instant Video) rented it, watched 2/3 of it - what a tedious movie. There is nothing fun or exciting in the first two thirds of this movie. Spend your time and money elsewhere.

2012-05-23 07:16:25

Excellent Film

This review is from: Priest (Amazon Instant Video) I did not know what to expect but it turned out to be a VERY good film. Entertaining all the way through.

2012-05-23 03:12:40

How'd you like to get this priest in the confessional? ("Say 800 Hail Marys, then go slay 97 vampires.")

PRIEST (2010) is the initial offering in what may become an endless "kill the vampires" series. Has everything I hate about modern movies: shaky camera work, bad acting, too much CGI and constant violence in lieu of dialogue, character development or any semblance of nuance. A cinematic sledgehammer that's geared to teen boys of all ages (13 to 83).

Beth Accomando 2012-05-21 21:20:14

Priest's shortcomings should not really come as a surprise. Previously, Stewart directed the equally lame Legion, which also mixed religion and demonic creatures.

2012-05-21 13:26:20

Enjoyed Immensely!

This review is from: Priest (Amazon Instant Video) Paul Bettany was brilliantly cast. He adds a depth to this film that you wouldn't expect from a comic book remake. Interesting mix of themes, heavy Catholic overtones with Stephen King's The Tower series mixed in. I hope Bettany returns to this role.

josef-6 2012-05-20 10:59:24

Entertaining Movie BUT Nothing Like the Graphic Novel

My 11-year-old twin sons and I really liked the movie and found it veryentertaining. We were disappointed that the theater showed HorrorPreviews instead of Sci-Fi Previews. This movie had monsters but it wasnothing like a horror movie. It was also nothing like the graphicnovels which didn't even have vampires in them and the main characterin the books was a lot more like the villain of the movie than thehero. I would compare this movie to Aliens, not Alien. It has a lot ofaction and super hero type stuff and is not too violent or scary for aten-year-old as some might think from the trailers shown on TV. My sonsasked me to buy the books for them and were disappointed to find thebooks are nothing like the film.

MLDinTN 2012-05-19 17:13:51

worst vampire movie ever

What a terrible action film. It was like a futuristic, western, vampiremovie- too much rolled into one. First the vampires are bad cgicreatures that have no eyes. They look like some generic monster. Butfor some reason the really bad vampire looks like a normal human, howthey are usually depicted.Preists are killers hired by the church to kill the vampires. The leadPriest goes against the church and heads out to the boonies to help hisbrother whose daughter was taken by the vampires. Soon a couple otherpriests join him, plus the town sheriff. They race across the desert inweird motorcycles and battle some of those simplistic vamps, whichdoesn't seem to be much of a challenge. Then there is a battle on atrain.Most of it didn't make a lot of sense.FINAL VERDICT: Terrible

xamtaro 2012-05-19 08:52:02

Kick Ass Clergy, Holy Mediocrity!

Visual effects developer-turned-director, Scott Stewart, delivers hissecond supernatural action film that claims to be "adapted" from thecomic book "Priest". Supposedly based on a Korean comic or "manhwa" ofsame name, the movie "Priest" has NOTHING to do with the original, noteven the name of the squinting "strong silent type" main protagonistplayed by Paul Bettany. Fallen angels, deal with a demon, multiple timeframe story lines and all other interesting elements of the original bedamned. And perhaps it was for the better since the manhwa's multiplestory lines taking place in the Crusades, the old west and the futurewould just confuse the heck out of everyone.So they crafted a whole new premise to appeal to the superficial summeraction lover. And the one thing they did right was to give us vampiresthat do not sparkle in the sunlight. These vampires are all teeth andclaws who swarm across the world at night attacking from giant hives, aclear reference to the "Aliens" franchise. These savage beasts havebeen at constant war with mankind since the dawn of time. A beautifullybloody animated prologue sets the back-story of the film about howmankind's salvation came in the form of the Priests, holy warriors whobattled the vampire hordes to near extinction.This story revolves around one of the veteran priests who lives amongthe other downtrodden human inhabitants of a walled dystopian cityruled by the now totalitarian church. When he receives word that hisniece was abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, the priest breakshis sacred vows to venture out of the city and rescue her. He is joinedon his crusade by his niece's boyfriend, a young trigger-fingerwasteland sheriff. But as the duo soon discover, reports of thevampires' return have been greatly understated. With a powerful yetfamiliar threat is leading the newly reformed vampire hordes, thewayward Priest and his companion must fend off supernatural foes andcontend with a group of fellow Priests sent to hunt down their roguebrother."Priest" is one cliché storm of a film that commits the cardinal sinsof a paper thin plot and forgettable characters thanks to theinexperience of first time writer Cory Goodman. The characters are soforgettable that the writer never even bothered to give many of themnames. Paul Bettany's main character is just called "Priest" (It is nothis name by the way). There is also "Black Hat" (because he wears ablack hat) and "The Priestess" (because she is a female priest) just toname a few. They are less like actual characters and more like blankcharacter archetypes thrown in for plot convenience. Archetypes likeCam Gigandet's hot headed Sheriff Hicks (a second reference to Aliensperhaps?) and Lily Collin's damsel in distress Lucy are just asforgettable even though they do have names.Failing to provide interesting characters or a good story, the leastthe producers could do was to deliver a holy hell load of violence witha hard R or M18 rating. Sadly the animated prologue has more blood andguts than the entire film combined since most of the gorier battlestake place in darkness or amid dust. The Fights are well choreographedbut they tend to be more stylish than practical and sometimes border onillogical. For example, a duel on a high speed train is awesome butnone of the combatants ever thought of kicking his opponent off theside? But despite these failings of the flesh, some salvation comes to"Priest" in the form of an excellent production design. From the darkcyberpunk inspired Church city to the post apocalyptic western townsdotting the hostile desert lands, great attention had been paid to makethose places as believable as possible. Perhaps most memorable would bethe tech on display in the film which includes futuristic motorcycles,tricked out shotguns and the Priests' arsenal of deadly cross-themedblade weapons.Beyond the props, flawless visual effects and startling CGI, the movietries as well to inject its narrative with deeper subtexts. The Prieststhemselves call to mind stories of War veterans who were shunned bysociety and unable to re-integrate, a theme made most famous in "Rambo:First Blood". The film also makes fun of how some churches twist theirreligion into a means of control, the hypocritical "holier-than-thou"attitude of modern Christians and their single minded belief that theyremain "saved from evil" as long as they worship God. It is notintentionally "anti-Christian" or "anti-catholic". It is more of aclever satire but there will always be the more conservative ones whowould cry sacrilege.At only 87 minutes long, Priest moves at a brisk pace and at the veryleast it is not boring. It would no doubt entertain action junkies andfans of post apocalyptic thrillers although more time could have beenspent developing the characters or delving into the underlying themesthat were addressed. Priest is spectacular but soulless, with a nicelooking "body" but barely enough "blood" and "spirit" to satisfy themore sophisticated movie goer.6.5/10 Rounded down to 6

2012-05-18 14:23:55

What a dumb movie

This review is from: Priest (Amazon Instant Video) Yeah it sounded cool but it isn't. The vampires are just silly and disappointing - blind and they look like CGI bald dogs. The story is weak - a bunch of vampires on a train heading to a city and only 3 people are going to stop them = a dumb action movie where more thought was given to just showing action than anything resembling a well thought out story. It just wasn't a movie I enjoyed very much.UPDATE: 7 people find this review unhelpful, well the movie sucked and I can't say much more. Although if it was unhelpful because I did not comment on the quality of video streaming then let me say this - the quality was fine. I frequently use Amazon VOD, have a large library of digital movies I own, and often use the Roku Roku 2 XS 1080p Streaming Player to watch them on. But this particular movie sucked - the streaming service is fine.

Jim Lane 2012-05-17 03:58:00

The parallels between Priest and The Searchers are extensive, and spotting them provides some fun in what might otherwise be a pretty dismal experience.

Joe Neumaier 2012-05-16 11:46:58

[If] you're looking for a diverting sci-fi actioner that handily mixes the DNA of several different movies, with a few flying crosses thrown in and a heavy dose of Western mythology, sink your teeth in.

2012-05-15 19:59:54

Priest

If you are into the silly action movies like I am then you will like this movie. It is kinda along the same lines as Blade with that tax cheat westly snipes.I liked the movie because it was well done for that kind of movie. IT is not a greand production but is a good action movie if you like the good guy taking out creatures.

Stephen Whitty 2012-05-15 11:19:07

The whole thing -- which in less than an hour-and-a-half manages to insult Catholics, Native Americans, John Wayne fans and anybody with two I.Q. points to spare -- all climaxes in a lot of fire and smoke and CGI explosions.

trashgang 2012-05-14 19:27:01

post-apocalyptic vampire story

Guess a lot of people will have a problem with this flick. Face it,post-apocalyptic vampire flick but you can see that it had it'straditions in the Japanese manga world. But I liked it the way it wasdone, sure it's unbelievable but still it worked out fine for me. Sadlyfor a manga story it isn't really gory or even bloody but due thepost-apocalyptic story you keep watching it. There is a lot of CGI orgreen key used but it didn't bother me even as a CGI hater. You can seeat the end that it was made to have a sequel but seeing the reviews Iguess it will never happen. Nevertheless, if you aren't into Japanesestuff then this is one to start with. The acting was okay too but Iguess that Stephen Moyer of True Blood fame was just in it as a teaser.He's only a few minutes in it. Great score, reminded me somehow of theexploitation heydays. Watch it if you want to have a night with yourfriends as a starter before you go to the gory stuff.

Tiny Zorro 2012-05-14 16:11:53

Stunning entertainment !

The past couple of years have had more than a few disappointments(imho) in the 'movie world' Not necessarily 'terrible' films, more likefilms that just were not what they could have been. Priest is NOT oneof them ! If you're looking for Oscar nominated acting performances,tough luck. But, if you want a no holds barred, adrenaline fuelled,hairs standing on the back of your neck action fantasy film, see this !The action is near perfectly balanced between action andcharacter/story development. I really can't do this flick justice. AllI can say is, if you enjoyed 'Book of Eli' 'Blade' and/or the 'Matrix'films then you should see this. Awesome movie 9/10 !

nflores342 2012-05-14 00:20:57

A different take on Vampires

Huge Paul Bettany fan that I am, there was no way I was going to missthis; throw in Maggie Q and Karl Urban, I'm sold. So like any priorvampire movie made since Twilight there is always going to be acomparison; but i'm glad to say it can't be compared to this film.Priest is completely different, really like no Vamp film i've ever seenbefore, to which I enjoyed the film because of that. Secondly andfinally there was blood and guts and fangs! To which twilight isdefinitely proved to be lame. And finally the film was entertaining,plain and simple.While its not perfect, and needs humor the storyline suited the storyand it was simple, my only quarrel is that I wished it to be longer.The graphics were great and the vampires were new, which hasn'thappened in a while. The acting was simple and to the point, not gonnalie Cam Gigandet annoyed me most of the time, but then again His scriptwas plagued to begin with. Maggie Q stole the show for me, and TrueBloods Bill even got some action, to which only made me drool over himeven more.With that a solid 7 out of 10, fun entertaining,and a good way to spendmy Friday night. Vampire fans enjoy, you'll get your action and blood.

2012-05-13 04:37:41

great gift

This review is from: Priest (Rated Version) (DVD) I had bought this as a gift and the person I bought it for loves it. It was nice to not have to search the store for it, found it very easily and at a very resonable price on Amazon.

slayerjmk95 2012-05-12 15:54:59

Not Legion, but still falls short

Paul Bettany is a fantastic actor with great potential, and he doesshow it in this movie after the giant 2010 fluke, Legion. But sadly,the movie helmed by the same director or Legion, Scott Charles Stewart,fails to deliver. The story has great potential, but fails to show itbecause of it's extremely short run-time of 87 minutes, but at leasthas the ability to fill in gaps in a second and third film if this doeswell because if this becomes a franchise, it could be something new andoriginal in the sci-fi/horror/action spin-take. So, is it worth seeing?Yes. Is it worth 3D? No. Not recommended for everyone but if you likeaction and thrills, then you will like Priest. But if you're lookingfor a greater story than Legion, then wait for a sequel because unlessa sequel happens, this is basically Legion, but a bit better.7/10 Stars***