Despite their subject matter, dystopic, post-apocalyptic films can be a lot of fun if you let them. Doomsday, for instance, took the nightmare concept of Escape From New York and wisely inserted the manic action and crazy characters of Road Warrior. But when your world is already ridiculously bleak, there's no need to drain the color out of it as well, both literally and figuratively. In Priest, the world is all blacks and greys -- the cities, the desert, the vampire hives, even the vampires are all shades of bleh. And the dialogue is so cookie-cutter that it might as well be grey, too, along with the leaping-through-the-air and-throwing-bladed-weapons-in-slo-mo action sequences. But, while it all feels done to death, it at least touches on a variety of genres, and occasionally has a flash of quirkiness and inventiveness that hints at what the movie might have been, if it wasn't a mostly generic sci-fi flick.

Tags: Paul Bettany, Priest, review, vampires