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Cast:
Paul Bettany as Priest
Karl Urban as Black Hat
Cam Gigandet as Hicks
Maggie Q as Priestess
Christopher Plummer as Monsignor Orelas
Lily Collins as Lucy
Directed by Scott Stewart
Movie:
Vampires versus Clergy would have been a much better title. After all, Priest is already the title of a critically acclaimed 1994 Miramax release, and Priest 2011 has very little to do with organized religion. Vampires versus Clergy is much more appropriate. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
Priest is an uneven and ultimately unfocused genre mash up that can’t quite keep up with its ambitions. Moving along quickly without ever really pausing to flesh out the post-Apocalyptic world it takes place in, it tries to do too much and ends up doing very little.
Vampires, post-Apocalyptic America, Westerns, oppressive religious dictatorships, sci-fi action, there are a whole lot of influences and ideas crammed into 87 minutes. There is some decent action (though far more slow-motion than necessary), a solid supporting cast, and it’s a major improvement over last year’s pairing of star Paul Bettany and director Scott Stewart, Legion.
But Priest remains unsatisfying. This world of warrior priests and wars with vampires and isolated settlements and massive city centers is woefully under-developed. A little more focus and a longer running time would have gone a long way. As is it’s a passable time filler, the kind of movie that’s moderately engaging but easily forgotten.
Bonus Features:
The DVD packs a significant amount of special features, most of which are informative. There are 12 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, including an incomplete opening scene featuring mocap suits, green screen, and wires. There’s also an alternate ending and a little bit more of the Queen Vampire. Nothing that would have added or changed much.
The Bloody Frontier: Creating the World of Priest offers a look at the production design and special effects. Cast and crew discuss how digital and practical effects were used in specific scenes and for certain sets like the train chase, the caves and tunnels, and the frontier town. For anyone interested in CG and visual effects, it’s definitely worth watching.
Weaponry and transportation are the focus of Tools of the Trade: The Weapons and Vehicles of Priest. Fairly self-explanatory, it’s an intriguing examination of the various vampire-slaying devices utilized by the priests. Stewart and other crew members talk about weaponizing religious icons and creating anachronistic guns, knives, and motorcycles based on German engineering. Stewart amusingly notes that much of what they produced is impractical but looks cool.
The Filmmakers and Cast Commentary features Stewart, Bettany, writer Cory Goodman, and co-star Maggie Q. It’s quite lively and a fairly entertaining listen with hardly any dead time. Stewart dominates the discussion and remains all-business throughout, while Goodman mostly praises Stewart’s decisions and asks him questions about why he did this or that. Bettany and Q crack jokes and don’t talk as much as the other two.
Stewart provides some interesting insight into how sequences made the transfer from script to screen, and he notes that the Unrated DVD is actually different from the PG-13 theatrical version. He says there’s more blood in the former and that it’s much redder (the MPAA made them darken the blood to get a PG-13). Stewart also says the ratings board made them tone down certain sound effects, like knives plunging into people, and those effects are amped up in the Unrated version.
Blu-ray Exclusives:
Bullets and Crucifixes: Picture-in-Picture Experience is an enhanced commentary and total waste of time, especially if you’ve already watched the bonus features and listened to the commentary track. Cast and crew pop up on the screen and talk about the movie. While a large number of people are heard from, including Stewart, Bettany, Q, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet, producers, and the visual effects supervisor, for the most part they repeat things we’ve already heard.
Not only that, there are continuous gaps, and minutes go by without anyone saying anything. It’s dull and not worth watching unless you really like to see people talk on your screen as the movie plays.
Finally, a few previews and a Twisted Metal Uncut Trailer round out the bonus features.
After sitting through all of the Blu-ray’s features, a couple annoying trends emerged. One, people constantly talk about making vampires scary again while badmouthing what they see as an influx of sexy and nonthreatening vampires. But Priest is more action than horror movie and the CG vampires are not remotely scary.
Things also become obnoxiously pretentious at times, as if the movie was made to contend for awards. It’s hard to keep track of the number of times someone references John Ford and The Searchers, and in the commentary track Stewart talks about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and how Priest makes sacrifices and is scarred by what he’s seen in war.
Folks, this is a popcorn movie about vampires battling warrior priests. Let’s not try and make it more than it is.
