At the Movies with Fatwayne

This ain’t your ordinary parish priest for sure! These men and women were created by The Church as elite spiritual warriors called Priests who were skilled at killing vampires. Good thing for them since these vamps look more like giant dogs with a very bad case of mange. They are also unbelievably strong and fast.

The movie’s setting is in a post-apocalyptic alternate world which has been devastated by centuries of warring between the humans and vampires. The Priests’ warrior skills permitted the humans to eventually gain the advantage over the bloodsuckers. Those vampires left were put on reservations while the humans lived in walled cities under the strict control of The Church. Once the Vampire Wars ended the Priests as a group were disbanded and now live in obscurity performing menial jobs to survive. Considered dangerous by their human brothers they are avoided like lepers, further isolating them.

One of the most effective warriors was simply known as Priest (Paul Bettany). He is approached by a sheriff, Hicks (Cam Gigandet) from a nearby town outside of the city. There are areas where people chose to live as outcasts rather than be under the tyranny of The Church. Hicks informs Priest that his brother and sister-in-law have been killed by vampires and that his daughter, Lucy (Lily Collins) was kidnapped by them. Hicks asks for Priests assistance in tracking down Lucy in whom he has a romantic interest .

The leader of The Church is Monsignor Orelas (Christopher Plummer) who forbids Priest from going on this quest. Orelas further declares that there are no vampires and that his flock is protected by The Church in any event. Priest decides to ignore the Monsignor’s edict and go with Hicks in search of the rogue vampires and his captured daughter. Orelas is furious at being disobeyed and sends four Priests led by Priestess (Maggie Q) to bring the rogue Priest back, dead or alive. Very Christian of him, wouldn’t you agree?

Priest and Hicks soon discover that the vampires are breeding a new army and are intent on attacking the walled cities and killing all of us pesky humans – once and for all. Soon the Priestess and her cohorts catch up with Priest but instead of detaining him they decide to do what they do best, kill vampires. There is a problem though since one of their fallen Priest, Black Hat (Karl Urban) who was thought to be dead by the hands of the vampires was made into an unstoppable vampire-human hybrid by the vampire Queen who gave him some of her blood. This dude is “tuff” and it seems only a miracle can save the Priests and humanity.

There are several things that made this movie interesting. The super human skills possessed by the Priests and their primitive but effective weapons that they used was neat. I also enjoyed their beefed up electric motorcycles and the fact that there were solar stations in the wastelands where they could recharge their batteries. Black Hat proved to be both a sinister and interesting character whose demeanor added to the enjoyment of the film. I think you will enjoy this tale especially if you see it in IMAX 3D like I did.

Rated – PG -

Fatwayne’s Rating

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