Priest (on DVD) - Vampires That Are NOT Cute!

Last night my husband and I watched Priest on DVD. Wow. (take a breath...) Exclamation mark!

The nitty-gritty details first:

Priest (2011), PG-13, 87 min - Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Released in theaters on May 13, 2011 (USA), DVD Release date August 16, 2011.
Stars: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet and Maggie Q

Brief Synopsis: A priest disobeys church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece.
Full-blown Storyline: A post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, is set in an alternate world -- one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. He is joined on his crusade by his niece's boyfriend, a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills. Written by Screen Gems

My Opinion: With the large number of vampire, werewolf, demon-type movies, etc. that have been and will continue to be created, we tend to feel like we've "seen it all" and nothing new will cross our paths pertaining to storylines and characters and action sequences. Well. Priest impressed me, kept my full undivided attention and my husband never drifted off to sleep (that in itself means the movie was decent).

When we find ourselves pausing the dvd player, having discussions about the storyline, replaying some scenes and looking at the movie from a broader perspective to fully understand what the hell is going down...that's awesome! Discussions were had, man!

By the way, these vampires are NOT cute and lovable. You wouldn't want to touch them with a ten-foot pole. In fact, you'd take that pole and defend yourself with it...and likely not survive your encounter with these vampires afterwards. Unless they turned you into what's called a "familiar"....or something else! And I'm not sure that's called surviving. It depends on whose point of view, I suppose.

The higher-ups in the movie - the authorities, the ones that rule - of course have no clue what is REALLY happening out in the big, bad world. (And the landscape is totally post-apocalyptic in nature.) They want to ignore/deny/sweep under the rug the fact that vampires are creating havoc outside their precious city walls...even up to the very end of the movie!! So frustrating that you want to ring their necks!! ...I won't elaborate-don't want to spoil it for people.

The kick-butt action was supreme including the special effects which seemed flawless to the point of beautiful! Some surprises were tossed in, which I won't mention, but definitely add to the tension of the movie and give more purpose to some of the character's actions. The movie wraps up nicely but also dangles the carrot in your face...leaving it open to a sequel because of unfinished business. I hope a Part 2 is made. There is MUCH that could be told in a second movie.

Stephen Moyer from True Blood even had a small part in it! What a surprise!

For those people like me that love this genre of movie - go rent it! It's something a little different than what we're used to seeing!!! And I still LOVE what I AM used to seeing, too!!! Bring it!