The latest comic book/manga adaptation to reach the big screen is Priest, an action-horror story based (very loosely) on Min-Woo Hyung's manga of the same name. As far as adaptations go, this movie gets an F in Faithfulness. It could hardly differ more from the source material. The manga is set in the past; the movie, in the future. The eponymous Priest has a name in the manga; in the movie, he has a number. The role of the church differs greatly in each, from a very standard, recognizable incarnation in the manga to a disconnected, dystopian theocracy in the movie that would make George Orwell blush. Min-Woo Hyung's monsters are akin to George Romero's zombies, while director Scott Charles Stewart's vampires are a cross between the soldier demons in 2005′s Constantine and the raptors in 2000′s Pitch Black. These changes make last month's Dylan Dog: Dead of Night seem like a frame-for-frame copy of the original comics.
There are some welcome changes, though. In the manga, "Priest" is an ironic moniker, as the main character is actually a servant of (and bodily host to) a demon. He is essentially a pawn in a civil war between two powerful devils, who struggles to save his soul, even though he has literally traded it already. While I appreciate irony as much as anyone, at this point the "white knight in Satan's service" has become a bit of a cliché. I much prefer the movie's version of priests, the specially trained soldiers of God who turned the tide in the war between vampires and humans. While the church's treatment of their mortal saviors, mistrust leading to disbandment á la the Templar Knights, is itself a cliché, it does perfectly set the stage for what follows.
And what follows? Well, the manga and the movie share more than a name. Though the plots and settings are different, both are actually powerful representatives of the sci-fi western genre. Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale, The Da Vinci Code) is a retired soldier (of God) who comes out of retirement when his brother's frontier home is attacked. Cam Gigandet (Pandorum) is the lawman in love with the girl abducted during the attack who brings word to Bettany and joins him in his quest to hunt down the creatures responsible. They cross the desert, investigate hostile settlements, fight roving gangs (of vampires), and even have a showdown with the villains on a speeding train. It's a plot right out of a classic western, and it completely supplants the stereotypical dystopian future/vampire scourge narratives as the heart of the movie.
The actors make it work, too. Bettany is thoroughly enjoyable, and believable, in his role as a man tortured by more than one element of his past and seeking any form of atonement. Gigandet is certainly no rookie, but he is when it comes to vampires, and he needs Bettany's guidance as much as he needs his quicker-than-the-human-eye reflexes. Maggie Q (Live Free or Die Hard) is solid in her role as one of four priests sent to retrieve the disobedient Bettany and bring him before Monsignor Orelas (Christopher Plummer, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Star Trek VI) to face judgment, dead or alive. And last, but certainly not least, Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Riddick) shines darkly as the vampiric villain leading an army of monsters in swift slaughters of the unsuspecting and unprotected towns. The human-vampire war, thought by most to be long dead, is set for a bloody resurrection.
As I said, it's hardly like the manga series at all; but I like that. In a world with actual monsters, I don't want a hero who is part monster himself. While the idea of a hero who must fight for his soul while he fights demons may sound compelling, it's sometimes enough of an internal struggle just being human. And in a world where the Devil sends armies, I like that God also sends an army. To quote a line from Purgatory, the graphic novel written as a prequel to the movie, "I will now show you our Lord is not filled with sh**, but with power." The line is uttered by a priestess who demonstrates, with three of her fellow priests, just how powerful they are as they proceed to decimate the ranks of a vampire army all on their own. Though the church has become corrupt in the future, those with faith are still shown to be heroes. Even in an action-horror movie such as this one, it's nice to see actual good guys as the "good guys".
So, yeah, it gets an F in Faithfulness; but for great actors, horrifying vampire effects, spectacular action sequences, and being the best sci-fi western I've seen in years, it gets an A in Awesomeness.
There are some welcome changes, though. In the manga, "Priest" is an ironic moniker, as the main character is actually a servant of (and bodily host to) a demon. He is essentially a pawn in a civil war between two powerful devils, who struggles to save his soul, even though he has literally traded it already. While I appreciate irony as much as anyone, at this point the "white knight in Satan's service" has become a bit of a cliché. I much prefer the movie's version of priests, the specially trained soldiers of God who turned the tide in the war between vampires and humans. While the church's treatment of their mortal saviors, mistrust leading to disbandment á la the Templar Knights, is itself a cliché, it does perfectly set the stage for what follows.
And what follows? Well, the manga and the movie share more than a name. Though the plots and settings are different, both are actually powerful representatives of the sci-fi western genre. Paul Bettany (A Knight's Tale, The Da Vinci Code) is a retired soldier (of God) who comes out of retirement when his brother's frontier home is attacked. Cam Gigandet (Pandorum) is the lawman in love with the girl abducted during the attack who brings word to Bettany and joins him in his quest to hunt down the creatures responsible. They cross the desert, investigate hostile settlements, fight roving gangs (of vampires), and even have a showdown with the villains on a speeding train. It's a plot right out of a classic western, and it completely supplants the stereotypical dystopian future/vampire scourge narratives as the heart of the movie.
The actors make it work, too. Bettany is thoroughly enjoyable, and believable, in his role as a man tortured by more than one element of his past and seeking any form of atonement. Gigandet is certainly no rookie, but he is when it comes to vampires, and he needs Bettany's guidance as much as he needs his quicker-than-the-human-eye reflexes. Maggie Q (Live Free or Die Hard) is solid in her role as one of four priests sent to retrieve the disobedient Bettany and bring him before Monsignor Orelas (Christopher Plummer, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Star Trek VI) to face judgment, dead or alive. And last, but certainly not least, Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Riddick) shines darkly as the vampiric villain leading an army of monsters in swift slaughters of the unsuspecting and unprotected towns. The human-vampire war, thought by most to be long dead, is set for a bloody resurrection.
As I said, it's hardly like the manga series at all; but I like that. In a world with actual monsters, I don't want a hero who is part monster himself. While the idea of a hero who must fight for his soul while he fights demons may sound compelling, it's sometimes enough of an internal struggle just being human. And in a world where the Devil sends armies, I like that God also sends an army. To quote a line from Purgatory, the graphic novel written as a prequel to the movie, "I will now show you our Lord is not filled with sh**, but with power." The line is uttered by a priestess who demonstrates, with three of her fellow priests, just how powerful they are as they proceed to decimate the ranks of a vampire army all on their own. Though the church has become corrupt in the future, those with faith are still shown to be heroes. Even in an action-horror movie such as this one, it's nice to see actual good guys as the "good guys".
So, yeah, it gets an F in Faithfulness; but for great actors, horrifying vampire effects, spectacular action sequences, and being the best sci-fi western I've seen in years, it gets an A in Awesomeness.