Priest - A Movie Adaptation
Now, I guess, in order to understand my frustration with what I’m about to bring light too, I should provide a little bit of back story. There is a story that I’ve been working on for the better part of a decade now and I can only hope and pray that I finish it. It’s what I would call, my masterpiece. I have no idea if it’ll ever be completed. The scope and details are just so involved and intertwined that I honestly think it’ll take me years of full time devotion to ever finish it. But I digress….
Anyways, a while back I came across this manga called “Priest” by Hyung Min-woo and I was blown away. I was so impressed by the depth of the plot and the characters that Hyung created that I yearned for each book to come out. There was so much inspiration coming from the pages that it really helped me in developing my story and provided fuel for my imagination. I was able to accomplish quite a lot with my story while I was reading and living in the world that Hyung had created. Sadly, there’s only 16 books so far in the series, it is nowhere near the end of the story, and currently it appears that no more books are being produced. It’s looking like the world will never know the fate of Ivan Isaacs and Temozarela.
Now “they” - being the movie studios - have decided to make this manga into a movie. At first I can easily say I was excited until I read the plot synopsis for the movie:
The film centers around a world where vampires and humans are at war. A priest, presumably Ivan Isaacs, goes against the church to track down a band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece.
So, you might ask, what’s the big deal, other than the fact that it seems like another “vampire” movie. Well, allow me to introduce you to the plot of the manga (from Wikipedia):
Priest tells the story of humanity’s battle against 12 fallen angels, led by the archangel Temozarela. Despite having fought for God in the battle against Lucifer, Temozarela and his cohorts shortly thereafter found that God had lost interest in them. Upon finding God has focused his attention on humans they decide to rebel against God in light of God’s favoritism towards the human race. They descend upon Earth to ‘play God’ among the humans who build a temple and statues for them. For their rebellion and acts against humanity, God destroyed their temple and their statues were cast underground, with their souls being trapped within the statues.
Centuries later, there lives a Holy Knight called Vascar De Gullion, a killer of heretics in the name of God. After his wife and children were burned alive, Vascar De Gullion ‘loses faith’ and wanders the earth in a ‘blood rage,’ leaving a wake of slaughter wherever he goes. His journey comes to an end when he discovers a hidden cave with the statues of the 12 fallen angels. Temozarela talks Vascar De Gullion into giving his body to him in the hopes of gaining revenge on God.
It is again centuries later that Vascar De Gullion is found alive and sentenced to be judged as a Heretic by Betheal, a powerful priest. Upon dealing with Vascar De Gullion, Betheal discovers from Vascar De Gullion that he is not who he is meant to be, but rather Temozarela. Temozarela plays with Betheal’s only pride and joy in life, a child he saved from a heretic sacrifice. The fallen angel manipulates the child into brutally slaughtering a young woman, taking her arms and heart, and setting up a blasphemous ritual room with her blood. Once Betheal sees what his child had done, he instead sees Temozarela laughing and ends up killing the child with his own hands. Betheal loses faith in God also and Temozarela takes Betheal under his wing as one of his disciples. Instead of turning in favor of Temozarela, Betheal acts as the Judas in this story, betraying Temozarela. Betheal devotes his life to study a way to trap Temozarela so that people can be free from him. This came in heretic invention of the Domas Porada. Betheal’s body is needed to be the key in keeping the lock on this ‘cage’ locked. With his soul trapped inside the Domas Porada, Betheal enters a new life altogether with the power he gained from turning away from God. He is a now a kind of demon, called Belial.
Ivan Isaacs, the hero, is called upon to solve the puzzle that the Domas Porada presents. Upon solving it Ivan is cast onto a cross after witnessing his only love, Gena, die in his arms. It is then that Belial takes Ivan, who in the madness of losing Gena denounces God. Ivan is reborn as an immortal serving Belial. Because of Gena’s death Ivan devotes himself for vengeance against Temozarela and his men.
The Priest story spans three distinct time periods; modern times, the Crusades and the Wild West, although it is primarily focused on the last period. Whilst featuring a large cast of heroes, anti-heroes and villains, a number of which enjoying in depth and detailed character development within the plot, the lead antagonist of Priest is Temozarela, whilst the main protagonist is Ivan Isaacs, a now immortal, 19th century priest who sold his soul to Belial, a former priest turned devil, in the pursuit of revenge and redemption after unwittingly unleashing Temozarela from the Domas Porada, a prison of sorts constructed by Belial (then Betheal) to imprison Temozarela.
Now, I ask you, where are the vampires or a niece in that synopsis? This is completely unbelievable. Why do studios do this? You already have an incredible story full of action, suspense, love and pain. There are characters that have depth and a story large enough to easily make three movies. Why would you take a character’s name and supposed profession, and title and a similar likeness (e.g. a cross on the forehead) and leave out all the rest. Well, that’s not entirely true. The sheriff character - Coburn - is also supposed to be in the movie, however, his character is butchered as well. I just don’t understand. What’s the point?
Anyways, given that “Priest” was such an inspiration to me and such a great story, I really don’t know if I’ll ever be able to watch the movie. Honestly, I think the movie will still be decent, but given what it could have been, I will most likely be too disgusted to subject myself to it, or give the studios my money - thereby encouraging their disgraceful acts of butchery. Unfortunate…most unfortunate.