El sicario de Dios

A priest throwing crosses like throwing stars into a vampire caught my attention.

Vampire meets post-apocalypse meets religious iconography meets Western. Staring Paul Bettany. I had the misfortune to see Legion and I've yet to forgive Mr. Bettany for participating in that wretched wince-fest. So given the actor and the genre, it's probably not going to be an Oscar-nominated type of film. But you know that the moment you saw the trailer.

As a Catholic (the orthodox type that grudgingly accepts Vatican II but mutters about 'the good old days' entirely tongue-in-cheek) it caught my eye. If you happen to be Catholic, every time you see a trailer for a movie where Catholicism is notably featured, you think to yourself 'Oh boy, how are they going to do a hack job that makes it out to be nothing like it actually is this time?'. Can't blame writers though, it's a religion that provides a deep, deep mine of interesting looking iconography and concepts (Apparently Catholic priests are the Ghostbusters of any movie that involves exorcism. You know who they're going to call. An old priest and a young priest.)

Interestingly enough, this film really... Doesn't involve religion. There's the iconography of Catholicism, a few words here and there, but there's really no actual religious content to the film. It's as if a tourist from another planet did a really in-depth one month tour of all things Catholic, but unable to understand the language, did the best job they could of representing it to their friends back home. The film doesn't denigrate Catholicism, it treats it more like a grab bag of 'ooo, that sounds / looks cool' material. It's a post-apocalyptic vampire western that involves characters that participate in a world where there's a State-run religion that is akin to Catholicism in a weird sort of 'parallel dimension where everyone has a goatee' type way. It's what you think you know, but not.

The movie itself is visually interesting. In many ways, it's similar to Event Horizon - another film where a concept wrapped in bad dialog with little to no sane plot caught the viewer's eye with interesting imagery.

Do you like vampires? Do you like westerns? Do you fancy a post-apocalyptic world? Does religion intrigue you, but in a 'not enough to be serious about it' way?

This is your film. It's not a bad film. It's not a great film. If you like certain things, like I do - vampires, vampire killing in a kick-ass style and a certain visual je ne sais quoi, 'world view' that's unlike anything else out there, it's worth seeing.

People you shouldn't take with you to see the film: Serious boring types that get upset if there aren't things like 'good dialog', 'character development' or 'a plot that doesn't make you put your head in your hands'. Much like Ke$ha, it's one of those catchy things you would never admit to enjoying to anyone you respected.

If you happen to be Catholic, rest assured that it's not butchering the religion and presenting some horrific view of it that alienates all who would see it. That's because it doesn't understand religion, but hey (blame the material it's based on - eastern writers tend to have a really strange view of Catholicism and Christianity in general.)

See it in 2D if possible. Like any 3D film originally shot in 2D, the 3D isn't great. Not as bad as Alice, but Avatar it ain't. While rated PG-13, taking anyone who isn't in college or older to see it isn't going to add anything to their life at this point.

And, if you, like me, enjoy it - try not to mention that in respectable company and we can just nod at each other in passing, secure in the belief that not everything enjoyable under the sun needs to be Oscar-worthy material.

dark, dramatic, decent mixture of religion, vampires, not bad acting, impressive fight scenes and special effects. and, maybe more important, a realistic story, the presence of Paul Bettany and Urban being useful ingredients for a film who gives the expected scenes, emotion and fascination.

Futurist film based on graphic novel series "Priest" by Min-Woo Hyung with interesting screenplay by Cory Goodman . After centuries of war between humans and vampires , the Church assigns warrior-priests to defeat the vampires . The survivors are kept in reserves and hives and the men live in chaotic cities governed by the Church . A rebel priest (Paul Bettany , Gerard Butler was originally cast) disobeys church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece (Lily Collins , Phil Collins's daughter) . His War is Eternal but his mission is just the beginning . The outcast priest sets out to look for his niece along with a young sheriff named Hicks (Cam Gigandet , though Steven Strait was originally cast) . Then , they encounter themselves chased by bloodthirsty , predatory vampires which have added them to his food chain . Sooner a warrior Priestess (Maggie Q) unites the Priest and Hicks in their quest . The duo along with the priestess must confront carnivorous mutants , hordes of warrior vampires starving of human blood and some of the most horrifying creatures ever made . At a hive the group is surrounded , as they encounter a pack of carnivorous , crawling creatures that are waiting for them , facing their destruction and exposed to cruel bites by meat-eating sickos and finally battle their deadly enemy , Black Hat (Karl Urban) . They undertake a desperate fighting to survive and chase a train to find his niece called Lucy (this is a throwback to the Dracula of Bram Stoker, where there is also a character named Lucy, who is also an engaged redheaded girl in need of saving) .

This exciting picture is set in a post-apocalyptic , an alternate world , one ravaged by centuries of battle between human and bloodsuckers , it contains thrills , chills , plot twists , action-filled with fierce fights and lots of gore and guts . The terror and action moments are fast moving and compactly realized . The film turns out to be a crossover among several films , taking ideas here and there , resulting to be an entertaining movie . And of course the theme of people being stranded in a hostile , perilous environment with attackers creatures is justly reminiscent of many others films as Pitch Black , Pandorum , Descent or Resident Evil saga . The creepy images of wide range from the genuinely fantastic to the bizarre along with an eerie and amazing frames . It's predictable but also its predictability is redeemed for some extraordinary surprises and in part by the charismatic acting from the main protagonists , Bettany and Gigandet . Furthermore a notorious secondary cast as Christopher Plummer , Brad Dourif , Stephen Moyer , Alan Dale , Madchen Amick , among others . The flesh-eating mutants appearance deliver the goods, plenty of screams, shocks and tension. The make-up assistants and visual effects artists create the truly terrible cannibal vampires , adding spectacular frames in 3D . Horrifying and astonishing images about eerie events and creepy scenarios are colorfully photographed by Don Burguess , and including luminous scenes from a futurist desert . Thrilling and suspenseful musical score by Christopher Young , an expert on dark atmospheres . The motion picture was well directed by Scott Charles Stewart , a visual effects specialist and who previously made a similar flick titled ¨Legion¨ . Rating : Acceptable and passable . Worthwhile watching .

Don't get me wrong I'm not going to gush about how great this film was, but to be fair it didn't insult my intelligence either and that's a big plus for me when it comes to films these days. I purposely avoided reading any literature in relation to the "story" of Priest to avoid any bias or pointless expectations.

I wanted to judge it based on what was told in the film alone and honestly I have no complaints as far as the story development went, it was pretty straight forward with the plot, the characters were put into position early on, no dicking about with badly handled sub-plots and phony intrigue. I wouldn't consider this to be a pretentious movie in any way, it's says what it's about from the beginning and it doesn't deviate from that narrative, it doesn't bring in (or keep) useless characters, (unlike "Sucker Punch"), it's a gateway movie but it doesn't treat it's support characters like balsa wood cut-outs (i.e "Thor")

Sure there could have been more action but what action there was, was nicely done, visuals weren't eye popping gorgeous but suited the film none-the-less. This was a lean movie, no needless fluff no overly complex ungainly plot just a "wham bam thank you ma'am" type deal.

This is one of the rare times I'm looking forward to a sequel.

In all honesty while the film looked kind of interesting I was from reading reviews that it was a waste of time(not just on IMDb). So I watched Priest expecting little, but while it had a fair amount of problems with it I found it decent. Is it the best of year? No. The worst? Nowhere near for me. Priest in my mind is somewhere near the lower-middle of the spectrum.

Where Priest scores especially is in the costume and set design which look wonderful, and the photography and editing looks very slick and the lighting atmospheric. The soundtrack is excellent too, with a rather epic feel to it sometimes. I enjoyed the performances of Paul Bettany and Cam Gigandet, was intrigued somewhat by the characters, even if they are a little vacuous and found the direction decent.

What wasn't so good was primarily the length, I personally think Priest was on the too-short side. Had the film been longer, the script could have been less choppy and underdeveloped and the story-though it did have an interesting concept to work from- less rushed and simplistic. Mostly I was impressed with the stylish look of the film, but I did occasionally find the effects on the artificial side.

Overall, underdeveloped and rather rushed, but the film's look especially saves it. 6/10 Bethany Cox