June 9, 2011

Quick Review: Priest (2011)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0822847/
Last year, Paul Bettany starred in another genre flick called Legion. Much like Priest, Legion was delayed and sat on the shelf for quite some time before the studio finally decided to dump it in Theaters. Usually, when movies sit or keep finding their release dates pushed and pushed, it's a bad sign.

Most who saw Legion were not happy with the end result. Priest hasn't fared much better. We liked Legion a lot more than we liked Priest. Did we mention that both movies were directed by the same guy? Hmm...

Priest is the story of... well, Priests. These Priests though are mankind's protectors against Vampires that roam the barren landscape of the world, and are the only ones that can kill the foul creatures. when they eventually rid the world of the Vampires (or so they think), the Church pretty much shuns them, and turns them into homeless losers. Of course, the Vampires reappear, and the only ones that can stop the impending doom of the undead is Paul Bettany...

Paul Bettany rules.
Legion wasn't a great movie by any means, but we found it to be a fun popcorn movie; for some reason, we were able to ignore its flaws and just enjoy the gun play and melodramatic one liners that the angels threw around so callously. Priest, though full of the same kind of popcorn-movie mindlessness, just didn't do much for us. The concept of what the priest's were was kinda neat, but the wire-fu jumps and unearthly karate/throwing star usage was a little lame.  

Bettany was enjoyable, but kinda just hit one note throughout, and oddly enough it was the same note that he hit in Legion. Karl Urban, who is definitely someone we usually love, had a crap character to work with, and we weren't buying the old west gunslinger thing he had going on.

Don't even get us started on Cam Gigandet.

It had some good action though.
It was alright as a mindless action flick, but it's just nothing we'd recommend or see again. The CGI Vampires were meh, the 3D conversion was fairly pointless, and though some of the action was fun (some, we say), most everything else about the movie was fairly underwhelming. It probably won't upset you to sit through this one, some of you may even have a good time with it, just don't be surprised if you end up feeling blah about the whole thing.

C-

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ZG98NC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002ZG98NC&linkCode=as2&tag=thehorclu0a-20&linkId=WRICK4ZFDGU2DZVK

Maggie Q, Madchen Amick, and Lily Collins are in this.

5 comments :

  1. Seriously underwhelming but agree 100% with the review. I knew what to expect going in so it was watchable.

    I think I'm at breaking point with cgi especially in horror films. Those cgi beasts didn't feel threatening at all.

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  2. Yeah Anon, the CGI monsters just don't feel like any sort of threat, that's a good point.

    Like in I Am Legend; a pretty decent movie..until the horribly rendered CGI mongoloids show up and take me right out of the movie.

    There's still a lot to be said for FX make-up.

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  3. LOL @ CGI mongoloids haha!

    I'm not anti cgi if it's used to dress up set's and create locales that would otherwise be impossible.

    I'm not in the industry but I do know these SFX companies do not come cheap so I don't understand why practical effects are not used more.

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  4. Yeah, I get it too, and I don't mind it as dressing either, but I have yet to see a CGI "being" that doesnt look off. Even in Avatar, which looked amazing, the Alien's eyes killed it for me.

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  5. Didn't know they were directed by the same guy, I definitely felt some "connection" between the two. Legion is the better of the two.

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