Priest – Unrated
In an alternate world, man and vampires have been battling each other for centuries until the Church finally came up with the solution that balanced the fight into their advantage: Priests. These holy killers were the ultimate weapon against vampires and have managed to defeat them. The remaining vamps were put together in quarantine zones and all was well.
Years later, after the last Vampire war, one of these Priests finds himself living among the other downtrodden human inhabitants of an Orwellian Church-ruled city when his niece gets abducted by a pack of vampires. As the city’s rulers do not believe this is possible (after all: the vampires are locked up in quarantine), he breaks his sacred vows and joins up with a local sheriff and a former Priestess in order to get her back before she’s turned into a vamp.
Sound and Vision:
Except for some posterization and banding in a couple of scenes, the picture on this Blu-ray is actually quite good. The colors are toned down to create a desolate atmosphere and the cinematography is very stylish.
The sound is highly aggressive with lots of use of the rears and subwoofer, but at times this comes at the cost of clarity in dialogues and positioning. Overall we can say sometimes “less is more” and Priest didn’t get that.
Extras:
– Deleted Scenes
– The Bloody Frontier: Creating the world of Priest
– Tools of the Trade: The Weapons and vehicles of Priest
– Audio commentary track
– Bullets and Crucifixes Picture in Picture interview clips
The two “documentaries” (in total just over 20 minutes) and the PiP clips are worth checking out, the rest isn’t.
Conclusion:
Priest has its pros and cons. On the good side, we get some nice battles, cool special effects and action that deserves a big screen TV. On the downside, the story is rather simplistic, the plot has some major holes, and the acting is rather static.
One example: vampires are nowhere near as charming as we know them. While movies like Twilight have sent them down the path of whiners, Priest makes a 180 degrees turn and puts them down as vile monsters that have little to do with humanity. As such, one can seriously wonder why anyone would want to become a follower, let alone get turned.
Still, if you don’t mind the dumb premise and most of all just want to have some great sceneries that remind of the Wild West, and some action passing by on your screen, then Priest is definitely one you may want to check out
6.0