Trailer Tuesday: Priest

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Paul Bettany just can't escape religion in his movies. Over the past 4 years he's been a fundamentalist albino madman at the service of the Opus Dei sect; agnostic evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin; a gun-packing, trench coat-wearing Archangel Michael; and now he's a tattooed, vampire-slaying warrior of the cloth in Priest.


Evidently Hollywood is running out of Western graphic novels to adapt because Priest is very loosely based on the popular Korean comic of the same name. Priest is set in an post-Apocalyptic alternate reality where the world has been decimated after centuries of conflict between the Church and a combined force of Satanists and vampires. Bettany stars as Ivan Isaacs, a warrior priest retired after the last Vampire War. When his niece is kidnapped by a vampire pack aligned with the sinister and powerful Black Hat (Karl Urban), Isaacs disobeys his superiors and heads out into the Wastelands to rescue her. He is assisted by his niece's sheriff boyfriend (Cam Gigandet) and a fierce priestess (Maggie Q) also at odds with the Church. Christopher Plummer, Brad Dourif and True Blood's Stephen Moyer also all appear in the film.


Now, honestly Priest looks like it could be mediocre (like Legion) at best, and utter rubbish at worst. The movie's massive deviation from the beloved source material is almost always problematic for comic-to-film adaptations. And damn if it doesn't look like the film is trying too hard to seem "cool".

This said, I am intrigued by Priest's weird mismatch of cinematic genres and styles (dystopian future meets stylish action horror meets Wild West hi-jinks). The film looks like someone dumped Stallone's Judge Dredd, Bladerunner, The Book of Eli, Equilibrium and Underworld in a blender, along with a dozen Westernzzzzzzz, a dash of The Phantom Menace and a sprinkling of I Am Legend. This makes the film a post-modern oddity that may be worth seeking out for curiosity's sake.

As a side note and interesting little piece of movie trivia, Priest's villainous star, Karl Urban, will be playing the title character in a new Judge Dredd film - set to begin filming in Cape Town soon.

Anyway, although its release date keeps shifting, Priest is currently set to debut in North America on 13 May 2011 - in both conventional format and (BEWARE!) converted 3D. There's yet to be any indication when the film will open in South Africa.

Comments

Gops said…
I just can't wait for this one. Love Paul Bethany, even though Legion was a disappointment.
4:15 PM
Roberta said…
Haha...really who cares that his movies suck. he's gorgeous! i love my brits!
1:48 AM
Pfangirl said…
And so speak Mr Bettany's devoted female fan club:)
2:22 PM
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