Review: Priest (Rating: 15)
Starring: Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Maggie Q, Cam Gigandet, Lily Collins
Once again teaming up with Paul Bettany in the lead role, Stewart this time foregoes the zombies of Legion Director: in favour of vampires, which Priest (Bettany) must hunt Scott Stewart ( Legion ) down after hundreds of years of fighting led mankind into a post-apocalyptic world, holed up in walled cities run by the Church, where the priests are reduced to a life of physical labour. But as ever, things aren't quite that cut and dried as a race of vampires led by Priest's old friend (Urban) kidnaps his niece, Lucy (Lily Collins), and Priest must team up with Lucy's boyfriend Hicks (Gigandet) to save her, but with a twist: he vows to kill her if he discovers she's already been turned. Naturally, he's had to break his vows to the church to set off on his mission, and so they send a team including a Warrior Princess (Maggie Q) to bring him back to the fold. Priest is stylishly produced and designed with some nice ideas and decently-done action scenes, but understandably flat performances from Bettany and Maggie Q abound as they struggle with a tired script that fails to flesh out their characters with any degree of personality or likability. Stewart could have gone far here, exploring possible themes of faith crises and the idea of rebelling against the church as supreme governor, but instead chooses a straight Cowboys and Indians type affair as Priest fights off one CGI vampire after another. Ultimately disappointing and dull despite the occasional interesting chase scene on a jet bike, Priest falls flat thanks to uninteresting directing, lack of tension and one-dimensional characters. Not half as entertaining or thought-provoking as it could have been.
16
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