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Priest

A vampire western about a warrior priest who disobeys church law by teaming with a young sheriff and a priestess to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped his niece. An adaptation of the action-horror TokyoPop comic book.

Starring: Paul Bettany, Karl Urban
Directed by: Scott Stewart
Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes
Release year: 2010
Studio: Screen Gems

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Synopsis: A vampire western about a warrior priest who disobeys church law by teaming with a young sheriff and a priestess to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped his niece. An adaptation of the action-horror TokyoPop comic book.

Starring: Paul Bettany, Karl Urban

Supporting actors: Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Lily Collins, Stephen Moyer, Christopher Plummer

Directed by: Scott Stewart

Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Runtime: 1 hour 28 minutes

Captions and Subtitles: English Details

Release year: 2010

Studio: Screen Gems

Studio required notice: Content is protected by U.S. copyright law. Learn more

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and brief strong language

ASIN: B005BG2FII

Rights & Requirements

Purchase rights: Stream instantly and download to 2 locations. Details

Format: Amazon Instant Video (streaming online video and digital download)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 130 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Blade Meets Aliens In Mad Max Land May 13, 2011

By P. Kingsriter

Format:DVD

This visually arresting film is sure to please those looking for a popcorn-y monster movie diversion. The plot's not much to write about (based on a series of graphic novels:Priest: Genesis - Volumes 1-3), but the visual interpretation is at times nearly breathtaking on the big screen (especially in 3D). The priests are a special cadre of warriors commissioned by The Church (the new world's governing body) to hunt down and eradicate vampires in the land. According to the comic book-style animated backstory, they accomplished their mission and were disbanded. But wait, not so fast. Despite The Church's unexplained objections and denials, there may be vampire trouble brewing outside the protective walls of the cities. One priest renounces his vows to save a girl held captive by the marauding beasts.

This is a world that looks like Utah's stark salt flats without life or greenery, but with lots of space where one can really zip around on super-cool jet-powered motorcycles. The cities are grotesque gothic masses of steel and randomly placed video screens straight out of a monochrome version of Blade Runner - The Final Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition). The sets are stark and at the same time fantastic. One feels the clausterphobia and despair of a world without natural light or color. The CGI set designers seemed to take great care in developing a convincing post-apocalyptic wasteland, but the results are uneven.... Adding in great amounts of detail in some scenes (3D dust particles, stunning lighting effects) is very impressive with its realism, only to be followed by a scene that seemed blurry, monochromatic, and feeling incomplete. Overall, the visual sets and effects are easily the most impressive part of the film.

Paul Bettany is convincing as a supercharged yet tortured vampire killer who gave up a shot at a normal existence (well, as normal an existence could be with vampires roaming the open plains) in order to dedicate his life to culling vampire herds and protecting mankind. Not much emotional range is needed for the role, but Bettany does a decent job of infusing it with some humanity. Cam Gigandet plays a squinty wild west-style gunslinger/sheriff bent on saving his girl. He's good with his knife but better with his gun (so he says). His character (and how Gigandet plays him) seems more of an annoyance to The Priest (and to the audience as well). Karl Urban steals his every scene with a deliciously snarling performance of a former priest gone bad. Maggie Q stoically kicks but while trying to hide her not-so-priestess-y feelings for our hero. The performance, while they won't be in line for Oscar consideration, are strong enough to carry the relatively weak story and drive the action.

The action is propulsive, albeit sometimes disjointed and difficult to follow in the vampire combat scenes. Not to worry, there's plenty of gory death and dismemberment for the mutants, which leads to this question: What does it take for a movie to get an "R" rating these days? There were amputations, decapitations, combustions, explosions, lacerations, and lots and lots of blood. Throw in a single "F"-word and they must've given the MPAA more than a few fits. I had to recheck my ticket to verify I'd actually seen a PG-13 feature. Sure enough, but still hard to believe. Anyway, it certainly satisfied the film's action quotient.

One aspect that may offend some viewers is that there seems to be open season on the Catholic church. The film makes no bones about its scorn for all things religious, especially if religion is used (in a paraphrase of Karl Marx) as the opiate of the masses. Christopher Plummer's immense talent is wasted as the control-minded monsignor of the church's highest office. He wails mantras through ubiquitous video screens to the city's public mind-numbingly plodding through the streets, obviously attempting to overtly brain wash. "To turn against the church is to turn against God" must be repeated 20 times in the film. We get what you're saying. Move on. Alan Dale's considerable acting chops are also squandered as he plays Plummer's right-hand monsignor. There was hope for what could have been a fantastic plot twist (a mole in the highest court) that never developed as his character took the wide path that leads to destruction, one of more than a few missed screenwriting opportunities.

But that's not necessarily why one watches a vampire-slayer movie. It's that kind of poor screenwriting that kept this film from being something really special and memorable. Instead, it's relegated to the class of effective but flawed genre film.

The bottom line is: I still liked it. I'd recommend "Priest" to anyone who likes films in the genre like Blade or Underworld (Widescreen Special Edition). Read more ›

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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty bad-ass overall August 18, 2011

By Peter Faden TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Amazon Instant Video|Amazon Verified Purchase

Dont get me wrong...this isnt an amazing display of acting or screenplay or what have you. However, what it definitely was....was bad ass. The imagery and landscapes were cool, the fighting was pretty neat, the characters were approachable, and the weapons were pretty awesome. It's only an hour and a half long, so you arent going to get that finely detailed development of a drama, but do you really need it? Nope. Basically, it's bad asses killing some creepy looking vampires, and feud between Priest and A) the Church (in this case, representing society and government along with the dogma and the deceit that comes with it), B) an old buddy turned nemesis, and C)occasionally with what is basically his sidekick.
I'll avoid revealing too much of the story, as sparse as it is, although you'll basically know what's going on within the first ten minutes or so.
To me,this was a movie made strictly to develop interest in a longer running series of movies, which promise to be even more bad-ass.
Excellent effort, worth the minor time commitment, pleasing to the eye. :)

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46 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great comic book action flick May 29, 2011

By E. M. Van Court TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

I'm sorry, "graphic novel" action film.

All sarcasm aside, "Priest" was exactly as advertised; excellent science fiction action, well suited for popcorn. And I enjoyed the heck out of it.

In an alternate earth, the Church and vampires have been at war for centuries. Technology didn't offer the solution, recruiting and training extraordinary fighters, the Priests, did. And when the church had won, and the vampires were contained in underground reservations, the Priests were not needed. The Church marginalized the Priests, and didn't want to admit that their control was incomplete, so when the vampires escaped the reservation and raided a farm house, they didn't want to acknowledge that the vampires were loose, or that the Priests were needed again. But the settlers killed and kidnapped by the vampires were friends of a Priest.

While Paul Bettany delivered an outstanding performance (of its sort) in the title role, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, and Christopher Plummer really carried it for me. Bettany delivered the brooding warrior priest very well, delivering intensity and portraying a man trying to reconcile conflicting duties well. The role didn't allow him great range, but he did the most with it. Maggie Q was allowed a far greater range as another Priest with chaste love for the hero. Her roles are getting more serious, and she is finally getting a chance to show her abilities. Well, she's always gotten to show off her martial arts gifts, and she does again here too. Karl Urban also gets a well earned, central role in this one, but aside from saying that he does an excellent job in a different character from earlier roles, I can't go further without spoilers.... Read more ›

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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 3D Review by a 3D Connoisseur October 14, 2011

By Keith Niemeyer

Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase

POST-PRODUCTION 3D (converted from 2D to 3D)

Action Packed Gore and Horror

My ratings are based mainly on the QUALITY OF THE 3D, not the video content.

There are about 38 out of screen effects that extend about 5% of the way, from the screen to the viewer and 34 at 10%. They were hard to count because about half of each are just split second effects.

I counted another 8 OOS effects between 20% and 30%. 4 of the 8 are floating smog flakes or sparks. The maximum effect is at 52:00 minutes while sparks are floating around ONE SINGLE SPARK floats in from 50%. 2 of the 8 are vamps jumping out to 25% at 33 and 45:30 minutes. The last 2 of the 8 are throwing stars briefly floating in slow-mo at 33:20 and a cross shaped throwing knife bowing out to 25% at 75:15.

The in screen 3D depth is excellent in over half of the movie (mainly in the brighter scenes), but the remainder of the 3D is somewhat muted due to some overly dark scenes, smog, smoke or dust. The nature of the script is this films biggest 3D downfall.

With that said, I enjoyed the 3D movie for what it was and give it a 4 star thumbs up!

*** Almost no flaws in the 3D ***
*** of the clear, bright scenes ***

MY 3D RATING = GOOD to VERY GOOD (poor, fair, good, very good, excellent)

Note: As far as the percentages go, everyone's eyes are different. What I see at 25% you may see at 15% or 35%. To fully realize how far something is out of the screen for you, pause on an effect and direct a partner with an extended finger to the tip of what you are seeing. You may be surprised.

Click on `See all my reviews' for the lowdown on other 3Ds

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4.0 out of 5 stars A different take

This was a different take on the disater movies and vampire movies combining the two, with a lot of action.

Published 11 days ago by Melvin D. Lovell

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best vampire movies

One of the best vampire movies i have seen, besides i always like the movies were everything is against the odds but still the protagonist does not surrender

Published 16 days ago by abraham ramos