History YMMV / Priest2011

** A theocratic dictatorship so corrupted and out of touch that it doesn't even bother to give personal confessions to believers anymore, preferring to use video booths with pre-recorded responses, would have made for an interesting enough Dystopian setting on its own. Instead, the movie treats it more as a background villain with the society it rules being largely out of focus as the main characters brave the bland desert wasteland fighting bland desert vampires. Also, rather than following the logical path of playing up an outside threat to keep the fearful masses in line (as real cults are known to do), the Church covers the vampire threat up for no apparent reason other than to keep the heroes underdogs.

* IdiotPlot: The entire story is one giant BatmanGambit from the villain to divert all of the Priests away from Cathedral City so his vampires can invade it unopposed. Except, the movie renders all of this pointless by showing him just casually killing three (out of ''five'' available) Priests by himself, thus showing that they're mostly a non-issue anyway. Since he definitely knows that the Church will do anything to cover up the impending vampire attack (as his entire gambit hinges on the Church excommunicating the Priest for acknowledging the vampire threat and sending all the remaining Priests away from the city to capture him), not going with the diversion plot would have allowed him to attack the city in total surprise, wreaking untold havoc and permanently shattering everyone's faith in the Church before the Priests could be dispatched against him (and even then only the main Priest stands a small chance against him anyway).

** A theocratic dictatorship so corrupted and out of touch that it doesn't even bother to give personal confessions to believers anymore, preferring to use video booths with pre-recorded responses, would have made for an interesting enough Dystopian setting on its own. Instead, the movie treats it more as a background villain with the society it rules being largely out of focus as the main characters brave the bland desert wasteland fighting bland desert vampires. Also, rather than following the logical path of playing up the vampire threat to keep the fearful masses in line (which real cults are known to do), the Church covers it up for no apparent reason other than to keep the heroes underdogs.

** A theocratic dictatorship so corrupted and out of touch that it doesn't even bother to give personal confessions to believers anymore, preferring to use video booths with pre-recorded responses, would have made for an interesting enough Dystopian setting on its own. Instead, the movie treats it more as a background villain with the society it rules being largely out of focus as the main characters brave the bland desert wasteland fighting bland desert vampires. Also, rather than following the logical path of playing up the vampire threat to keep the fearful masses in line, the Church covers it up for no apparent reason other than to keep the heroes underdogs.

** A theocratic dictatorship so corrupted and out of touch that it doesn't even bother to give personal confessions to believers anymore, preferring to use video booths with pre-recorded responses, would have made for an interesting enough Dystopian setting on its own. Instead, the movie treats it more as a background villain with the society it rules being largely out of focus as the main characters brave the bland desert wasteland fighting bland desert vampires. Also, rather than following the logical path of playing up the vampire threat to keep the fearful masses in line, the Church covers it up for no apparent reason other than to keep the heroes a bunch of underdogs.

** A theocratic dictatorship so corrupted and out of touch that it doesn't even bother to give personal confessions to believers anymore, preferring to use video booths with pre-recorded responses, would have made for an interesting enough Dystopian setting on its own. Instead, the movie treats it more as a background villain with the society it rules being largely out of focus as the main characters brave the bland desert wasteland fighting bland desert vampires.

** A theocratic dictatorship so corrupted and out of touch that it doesn't even bother to give personal confessions to believers anymore, preferring to use video booths with pre-recorded responses, would have made for an interesting enough Dystopian setting on its own. Instead, the movie treats it more as a background villain with the society it rules being largely out of focus as the main characters brave the bland desert wasteland fighting bland desert vampires instead.

** A theocratic dictatorship so corrupted and out of touch that it doesn't even bother to give personal confessions to believers anymore, preferring to use video booth with pre-recorded responses, would have made for an extremely interesting Dystopian setting on its own. Better yet, instead of letting the vampires be legitimate threats that the Church is covering up for some reason, they could have been turned into an Eurasia/Eastasia-esque Boogeyman that the Church actively draws attention to to keep its followers in line.

** A theocratic dictatorship so corrupted and out of touch that it doesn't even bother to give personal confessions to believers anymore, preferring to use video booth with pre-recorded responses, would have made for an extremely interesting Dystopian setting on its own. Better yet, instead of letting the vampires be legitimate threats that the Church is covering up for some reason, they could have been turned into an Eurasia/Eastasia-esque Boogeyman that the Church actively draws attention to keep its followers in line.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A kung-fu priest fighting vampires is [[CoolVersusAwesome pretty cool in its own right]], but an undead NayTheist priest fighting [[FallenAngel fallen angels]] like in the original ''{{manhwa}}'' would have been interesting to see and arguably more original.

* OneSceneWonder: Creator/BradDourif as TheBarnum SnakeOilSalesman.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The trailer for the movie used [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZpAGjczdus Two Steps From Hell's "1000 Ships Of The Underworld"]] as background music.

* CriticalDissonance: The film received a 15% in Website/RottenTomatoes and a much healthier 5,7 on Internet Movie Database.

** Creator/KarlUrban was praised for his near perfect portrayal of Creator/DeForestKelley's [[Film/StarTrek Bones McCoy]] - now he's doing an unintentional Creator/ClintEastwood impression as Black Hat.

* HamAndCheese: Every scene with Karl Urban in it. He takes his part to Raul Julia in Street Fighter levels of ham. Glorious, glorious ham.
* HilariousInHindsight: Creator/KarlUrban was praised for his near perfect portrayal of Creator/DeForestKelley's [[Film/StarTrek Bones McCoy]] - now he's doing an unintentional Creator/ClintEastwood impression as Black Hat.

* RootingForTheEmpire: The priests are rather bland and poorly-developed action heroes, while on the other hand Black Hat is a badass and [[EvilIsHammy wonderfully hammy]] MagnificentBastard, so [[RonTheDeathEater rooting for him is quite easy]].

* SignatureScene: Even by people who don't like the movie admit that the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJSDO3IHsrs animated opening]] is ''awesome'', beautifully animated and sets up a level of pure style that the movie afterwards never satisfyingly delivers on.

* HilariousInHindsight: KarlUrban was praised for his near perfect portrayal of DeForestKelley's [[Film/StarTrek Bones McCoy]] - now he's doing an unintentional Creator/ClintEastwood impression as Black Hat.

* ClicheStorm

* HamAndCheese: Every scene with Karl Urban in it. He knows how terrible the script is, and takes his part to Raul Julia in Street Fighter levels of ham. Glorious, glorious ham.

* RootingForTheEmpire: the priests are rather bland and poorly-developed action heroes, on the other hand Black Hat is a badass and [[EvilIsHammy wonderfully hammy]] MagnificentBastard, [[RonTheDeathEater rooting for him is quite easy]].
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Sure, kung-fu priests fighting vampires is [[CoolVersusAwesome pretty cool in its own right,]] but wouldn't you want to see an undead NayTheist priest trekking across the WeirdWest, hunting [[FallenAngel fallen angels]], like in the original ''{{manhwa}}''?