dark, dramatic, decent mixture of religion, vampires, not bad acting, impressive fight scenes and special effects. and, maybe more important, a realistic story, the presence of Paul Bettany and Urban being useful ingredients for a film who gives the expected scenes, emotion and fascination.

A post-apocalyptic (huge destroyed skyscrapers, ravaged landscape) vampire steampunk Western (lot of dust, a sheriff, gunfights, a railroad, cowboy costumes...) with tattooed (a cross stamped on the forehead) fighting priests, crosses converted in shurikens, armed badass motorcycles, "Matrix" martial arts, pale bald jumping hive insect-like organized bloodsuckers and, off course, a lot of CGI and slow motion. It looks like a mess, doesn't it? Well, it is... The story is simplistic and not innovative at all: there was a lasting war between vampires and priests (yes, they are "padres", not werewolves) and, after human victory, the church enclosed their warrior clerics inside its walls. As the niece of a padre was kidnapped by surviving vampires, he decided to break his vows and go there to save her. Then, he achieved enemies from both the vampire community and the church. He got the help of a sheriff (who looks like a young inexperienced sidekick) and teaches him how to kill vampires, but their relationship is a little troubled (you have already watched this story, haven't you?). In spite of all this criticism, the film is not bad.. but do not expect a nice vampire film, or a nice Western, or a nice post-apocalyptic movie.

Priest, based on a Koren comic of the same name, benefits greatly from an intriguing world and backstory. In the future hive-minded vampire race threatened to take over the world. Only the establishment of heavily walled cities and the order of warrior priests turned to tide against the vampires, but now the people are forced to live almost exclusively within the cities, under a theocratic dictatorship.Amazing, visually splendid stuff that is the perfect setting for an action-packed post-apocalyptic shoot-em-up festival. Add in a great lead in Paul Bettany and you certainly have a great starting point to build your movie from. Unfortunately the story is rather boring. The niece of Paul Bettany's priest character gets kidnapped and he has to go out, kill some vampires and save her. Basic stuff. In fact, too basic. There are no stages, because you know perfectly well how the story's going to go once you've seen the opening scene.Though, yes, I do admit that the movie has some surprised near the end, but those surprises don't save the story, quite the opposite in fact, because that haven't been set up in any way. Thus they come straight of nowhere, leaving the viewer frustrated and annoyed as the movie closes.Still, Priest is a great movie to check out if you're into dystopian, post-apocalyptic films with a fantasy/scifi tone. The action scenes work great, the visual designs are fantastic, the two main actors are in all honestly too good for the film, and even the story, while disappointing, is not awful by any means. In a sense this has all the makings of a typical cult film. It's stupid, but a great deal of fun if you're into its premise.

I don't know why Priest got so many bad reviews when it is such a great movie. The movie is so underrated and unappreciated, it's ridiculous! People that are giving this movie bad reviews either don't like vampire movies ,or they aren't open to new ideas. Priest isn't mean't to be anything like Twilight, and it also isn't mean't to be anything sexy or about Dracula. Priest has a unique story and has amazing actors and actresses as the lead characters. The movie had a lot of potential and a great desire to be incomparable to all the other vampire films out there. The acting, story, and dialog of this film is incredible, and people should definitely give this movie more credit for that. It isn't the typical vampire movie. Another thing that I should add is the fact that this movie doesn't take two hours or more to get to the point, so that's a bonus. There are several movies out there that are known for taking a long time for the story to build up, but this movie isn't one of them. It takes just the right amount of time to get to the point. I like that the vampires in the film isn't like the ideal and typical vampires we see in most films. They're more monstrous and savage like creatures that definitely creates a whole new impression of vampires. This film is very unique and entertaining, and it deserves much more credibility. I love the film, and I hope they make a sequel.