The world in which Priest is set seems to be an alternate reality or a parallel universe, where humans have fought against monstrous, vicious homicidal vampires which are humanoid, but obviously inhuman, fighting throughout their shared history, to the point of seriously damaging the world around them. The vampires are faster than humans and are highly efficient killing machines, severely overpowering humans and, as such, most of humanity retreated to large, walled cities, seeking the protection of the Church, a sort of religion/government/corporation all-in-one. Weapons against the vampires seemed futile until the Church discovered highly talented human fighters and trained them to be vampire-killers. Thus arose the Priests. These Priests were the one thing that was able to stop the vampires and, in the end, the humans had won and the remaining vampires were locked up in remote prisons. With the vampire menace quelled, the Church now feared the Priests as a possible threat to their power. The Priests were re-integrated into society, but, with their primary skill-set being centered around killing monsters that no-one is bothered by anymore, they found themselves outcasts, taking menial jobs - if they could get them.
This background intro, as described above, is told in the form of an intro animation, which is quite lovely. It depicts the human-vampire battle across the ages, in a gruesome way that is tempered, at least a bit, by the fact that it is animated, rather than live. The animation is very dark and nearly monotone, but the blood is a vibrant red, and, at times, moves as if it has life of its own. One part of this intro sequence features a battlefield, where humans are fighting with flame-throwers and other weapons that seem to be from the WWI era. As we pan across the battlefield and then zoom out to behold the magnitude of the battlefield, the artistry reminded me of ancient Chinese watercolors of battles. This animation does a great job of bringing the viewer up to speed on the world of Priest. I wish there had been a special feature on this intro animation, itself.
With the stage set, our story starts as we see Owen Pace (Stephen Moyer, True Blood), Shannon Pace (Mädchen Amick) and their daughter, Lucy Pace (Lily Collins) at their humble abode in the deserted wastelands outside of the cities, where we see Owen hoping to soon be able to actually plant some seeds and grow food again, Shannon being as supportive a wife as she can and Lucy feeling trapped in the wastelands, wanting to seek the excitement of the town and, perhaps, a boy her age. This quaint prairie family scene takes a sudden turn at dinner, when their small cabin is besieged by a torrent of vampires. The Paces attempt to spare Lucy by hiding her in a hidden storage area under the dining room floor, but she is discovered and taken by a mysterious man in a Black Hat (Karl Urban).
The Sheriff of the nearest town (and, as it turns out, Lucy's secret boyfriend) Sheriff Hicks (Cam Gigandet, The Roommate), ventures into the city and locates Priest to inform him of the event, as Owen had told him that Priest, Lucy's uncle, would help him to go after Lucy and rescue her. At first, Priest seeks the Church's approval and reinstatement to go after the vampires that took his niece. After the Church forbids him to go, however, Priest defies them and leaves the city, anyway. Priest meets up with Hicks at the ruins of his relative's outpost and, from there, they start their quest to track down the vampires that perpetrated the attack.
Meanwhile, the Church is not pleased with Priest's insubordination. To remedy the situation, four more Priests are dispatched to bring him back to the city - dead or alive. Well, in truth, one of them is a Priestess (Maggie Q). All of the Priests have history with Priest, but unwavering loyalty to the Church, so they set off after him.
The first encounter that Hicks has with the vampires occurs at the vampire prison they travel to in their search for clues. When they arrive, they find there are no guards and there are "familiars" - infected humans who serve the vampires - going about their duties above ground during the day. Priest and Hicks venture into the vault to investigate and find that there are only a few stragglers still at the facility; most of the vampires have left, somehow. They decide to check the nearest abandoned vampire hive to see if they went there.
The vampire hive proves to be full of surprises for Hicks and Priest. For one, there is a huge guardian vampire guarding a newer wing of the hive. The other surprise? The Priestess catches up with them at this hive and, at first, it looks like it might be a fight to the death. When Priest disarms Priestess, however, she reveals that she wasn't trying to bring him in, but to help him... and then there were three. They discover that the vampires have bred a new army of special vampires and would most likely be headed for Jericho... which also happens to be where the other three Priests were headed.
In Jericho, we discover that the vampires are traveling by railroad, in a special train that has no windows. Leading the vampires is a human vampire - a hybrid, of sorts... the man in the Black Hat. Instead of finding Priest in Jericho, the three Priests find the horde of vampire creatures wreaking havoc on the town, killing its people and burning the buildings as the man in the Black Hat calmly conducts the anarchy.
Projecting their path along the rail line, our heroes realize that the vampires are headed directly for a city, which, thanks to the constant industrial ash and soot belched out of the factories, are a safe-haven from sunlight... which is a sad state for humans, but is quite appealing to vampires. With the realization that the vampires were taking the war to an unsuspecting human city, our heroes make plans to rescue Lucy from the train... if possible... and to derail the train before it reaches the city without fail.
The climactic end of the movie pits superhuman vampires against Priests, in fights near, in and on top of a speeding locomotive. Priest delivers high-speed, high-impact action right up to the end and sets up nicely for a possible sequel. If they can create a sequel that delivers like Priest does, I look forward to seeing the next one.
Priest does an excellent job of combining a wide variety of elements from, well, all-over into something that seems novel and interesting. There are vampires, but not in the way they've been portrayed of recently... Instead, they look more like some sort of reptilian creatures or "lickers" from Resident Evil. There are the hyper-industrial cities that look like a cross between 1984 and Blade Runner. There are "old west" towns with steam-punk elements. Heroes and villains with superhuman speed and strength. Motorcycles that look like they would have been created during WWII, but with high-tech instrument panels and navigation systems. Priest seems like it could have been called, "Anachronism: The Movie" ...but somehow, it pulls it off.
The visuals are absolutely beautiful, looking crisp and vibrant on Blu-ray. If you're going to get Priest, Blu-ray is definitely the way to go. If you're already a fan of Priest, you may want to watch it a few times; once for the movie alone, again with the commentary and still again with the feature, Bullets and Crucifixes: Picture-in-Picture Experience. As a note, the commentary suppresses the movie audio and has voiceovers of the commentary during most of the movie, while the picture-in-picture feature has the normal audio during a good bit of the movie, with picture-in-picture with audio typically being presented during quieter scenes of the movie, so as to be less intrusive to the movie-watching experience.
If you're a fan of action flicks and comic-book-feeling movies, I would highly suggest Priest. It's a little of this and a little of that... but the overall mix is surprisingly enjoyable.
