Film Review: Priest

Rating: 6/10 - Good

Without much pre-meditated anticipation, this film thoroughly entertained me. To say it did not would be a lie; I was transported to the obvious comic book, post apocalyptic world of Korean Min-Woo Hyung through the perfectly constructed comic book compositions and overflowing yet adequate array of typically comic book hero one liners - without any effort on my behalf.

Director: Scott Charles Stewart. Screenplay: Cory Goodman (comic book series by Min-Woo Hyung). Producers: Micheal De Luca, Joshua Donen, Mitchell Peck and Sam Riami. Cinematographer: Don Burgess. Editor: Lisa Zeno Churgin and Rebecca Weigold. Score: Christopher Young. Studio: Screen Gems. Starring: Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Lily Collins, Brad Dourif, Stephen Moyer, Christopher Plummer, Alan Dale and Mädchen Amick.. Age Restriction: 16 LSV. Running Time: 131 minutes

The fact that this film is also set in a post apocalyptic sci-fi world, can be called typical, because a large number of horror comics are. Although The Priest is not that much different from the rest ( referring to other comic book adaptations) does not make it any less entertaining. Yes I refer to the fact that this film is utterly entertaining all the time, but much of comic book credit accounts for being a form of intense entertainment. Nevertheless, the post apocalyptic world (in this case pervertedly religious) does account for a form of cynical comment against some aspects of our current society, yet as the intense science fictional element transcends the here and now, so does such loosely based and between the lines socio-political 'comments'.

It can almost be said that, to watch and enjoy The Priest, the viewer requires a specific sense of how 'the mechanics' of comics work. Hereby I refer to the blatant use of over compositioned 'visual' and literary one liners ( in a way one can call them that, because in this case the word cliche does not really apply, mostly due to the generalizing method used in the genre of the comic book) . these one liners are part of a structure in which comic books are produced and hence flourish. It's almost like a visual language which if applied, automatically transports the viewer to the envisioned, fictional world in which the presented story is set. In this case The Priest's generalizing cliches are therefore appropriate in the films depicted context. This learned 'language' is primarily a key with which the viewer is able to access such blatantly fictional plots as the one presented in The Priest.

Now that the actual, effective and necessary use of cliches are established, I will resort to review the quality of the actual execution of these methods. Mostly The Priest renders for a particularly creative take on the genre of the-comic-book-film-adaptation. When the 'history' of the presented worlds post-apocalyptic situation is narrated, a rather inventive method of animation is included in the otherwise 'realistic' aesthetics. This method was effectively used and is mostly appropriate for creating the desired effect. Paul Bettany and Maggie Q delivers subsequently effective performances as the vampire killing heroic priests. The casting of the character Cam Gigandet portrayed was however not as approrpiate and rather clumsy; as was the character of Lilly Collins.

Verdict: Overall the sci-fi vampire narrative with a somewhat effective socio-political allegory will not fail to excite viewers with a sense of imagination (an almost exact description of the comic book market).