I had two reservations walking into the theater to see the new Vampire Horror-Adventure flick, Priest. One was that the film would not live up to what is a great, genre-bending graphic novel of the same name. The other was that I was going to walk out of the theater in 87 minutes thinking less of Paul Bettany. On both accounts, I left feeling...unsure?

     The opening credits follow the illustrations of the Priest graphic novel by Hyung Min-Woo (who was also one of the writers for the film) by way of telling some backstory. Essentially, the world is an alternate version of our own in which humans and vampires have been historic enemies whose war eventually escalated into full-blown apocolypse. Humanity retreats behind a protective wall and build a Gothic industrial nightmare on par with something out of Dark City. This new urban dystopia is controlled by The Church, who have developed a super-weapon; priests. However, these aren't any old priests, these are blade-wielding ninja-master priests of death, and they become the special forces that finally turn the tide in the war and end the vampire dominance. As the war is over, however, the powerful church disbands the priests and dumps them in menial jobs. (Waste management for instance)

     When the film opens, humanity is beginning to repopulate the planet (as radiation subsides) by moving out into the wasteland in outposts aesthetically remeniscient of the Old West. (This is the dominant easthetic of the graphic novel, so it stood to reason) Vampires have been largely wiped out and the few that are left have been relegated to "reservations" which are little more than large vault-like holes in the ground guarded by soldiers. Of course, there's a rumor of vampire attacks that draws a priest out of his working-class retirement to investigate.

     There's a too-quick exposition that puts our priest in question (played by Paul Bettany) back to work, with some hackneyed acting on the part of the "monsignors" or the church clergy. Once Bettany gets out of the theatrically stifling city into the wasteland there is some truly stunning cinematography that was undoubtedly the Nevada salt flats repurposed as post-apocalyptic desolation. In the name of emphasizing the Old West aesthetic there're some half-hearted scenes in a dusty town with the proverbial snake-oil salesman. The film doesn't really start getting interesting until the heroes visit a nearby vampire reservation.

     One of the most interesting aspects of the story, which was glossed over in the film, is the has-been nature of vampiric existence after their fall. One of their "familiars" or people that are made slaves to their vampiric masters, makes mention of the fact that these vampires were warriors, powerful beyond imagining, and now sentenced to live in a hole in the middle of the wastes. The correlation to native americans is undeniable, but it ends there. Maybe they'll continue to develop the analogy in the sequel (oh yeah, they left that wide open).

     To boil it all down, the film itself was mediocre. The dialogue was contrived at best, distracting at worst, and much of the standard action conventions were employed, sometimes more than once. The action scenes were noticeably lacking in gore, which may have been a ploy for a PG-13 rating. The important moments, however, were saved by the credibility that only Paul Bettany and Karl Urban can lend a movie of this genre. Hereafter referred to as cinematic viagra, I add both of these actors to a small but spectacular list of actors and actresses that, despite the garbage they may be cast in, allow the film to "rise" to the ocassion simply by dint of their talent.

     Bottom line, this is a rental, but it would be great to watch it on a 52" plasma with surround sound.