User Reviews

I really want a good film adaptation of the Book of Mormon. I REALLY want to see one. Because this film is... not that.

On a technical level it's not terrible. I mean, the cinematography, blocking, and editing usually make things more confusing. And a lot of the visual effects are things I recognized as nearly-unmodified stock assets from After Effects. But moment to moment it doesn't look bad.

It's clear Darin thought he was making a powerful movie. After all, it wears its influences on its sleeve (especially the ending, ripping off Braveheart and Gladiator back to back). SO many slow shots of Darin staring wistfully into the sunset.

But everything just feels a little too, well, ego driven. The whole story and everything in it only exists to make the main character look like a chad. And, like, freedom stuff.

Ultimately, for all the times the main character mentions God or Jesus Christ, the movie feels strangely devoid of any real spirituality. It's never clear what "the oath" is meant to refer to, or what the plates mean to him, or how he is in any way a prophet. He's just... a guy with big arms and massive main-character syndrome.

The Book of Mormon deserves so much better than this.

Like many, I backed this film and would love to see a Book of Mormon story brought to the big screen with broad appeal. I appreciate the director's efforts, and I know he was faced with serious obstacles in delivering this film. That being said, the script really needed some work.

I'll start with a few positives. The costume design, soundtrack, and filming location were all beautiful. That's why the three stars. The cinematography was fine, but there were too many tight shots. At times I had no idea what characters were looking at and kept hoping for a wide shot to give me context.

Unfortunately, one can't recommend a film based on music and visuals. Foremost, I first look for a compelling plot. I would've watched this had it been filmed on an iPhone and accompanied with stock music, if only the characters and plot had real substance.

The Book of Mormon explains next to nothing about this chapter in Moroni's life. But it does seem to be a sad and solitary time for Moroni. For a man who thinks he could die at any moment ("I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life" Moroni 1:3.), a romance was an odd plot to pick. I suppose it could've worked if the characters were fleshed out more. Yes, Moroni was physically alone, but why did he feel alone? What were his flaws, desires, or challenges? These things were either not clear or poorly conveyed, which leaves the character falling flat.

In short, the lackluster characters, shallow plot, some awkward dialogue, and even a couple uncomfortable scenes made me want to walk out of the theater. Maybe it was just me; the room was half full... Though I did count 3 different people checking the time during the movie.

I have followed the production process of this film for over a decade. I know the true story it is based loosely from. I bought tickets early and brought friends. We drove nearly 2 hours on opening night to see it in an empty theater. And then I was frustrated with so many things it is hard to say what were the good parts, because even the good stuff was so overdone it took away from the story.

First of all, I don't like author opinions at the beginning. Let me make up my own mind if I think it is good and worthy of praise. From there, the story started far to slow. Nothing to grab your attention. Not enough dialogue to know anything about it. Just leave off the captions all together if they are only used every once in a while. It's not even a recognizable language. There's no need. If this film was meant to tie a story to the Bible, it missed the mark.

There was no character development. Who was Moroni? The backstory of two fueding brothers thousands of years before was referred to several times, but that tells us nothing of the main character. There could have been flashbacks to battle scenes, his earlier family, anything. The woman he meets, who is she and why is she running? She got hit 1 time, but wasn't there more reasons for running away? The girl's sister, what was her name? In fact, you learn almost no one's name but king Aaron, who has a terrible accent that changes constantly. Was he a nephite? How did he become king? What's his problem with Moroni? If king Aaron was hunting Moroni before the girl escaped, there was no way of knowing it.

There was no real plot development either. Was this an oath to his forefathers, to a woman, what? The story made no sense. There was no passing of time or place. I couldn't tell the hunting party was gone more than a few weeks until a pregnant character appeared. No night and day, no seasons, no campsights, no change in scenery the whole time. If Moroni was hiding, why didn't he get further away once he met the girl. If she found him, others would.

There were too many similar scenes, someone sleeping, someone thinking, someone walking, etc. Almost no action or acting. Too many tight closeups. I don't even remember seeing King Aaron at full length the whole time, or the whole hunting party, which appeared to grow and shrink. There were too many scenes with sunlight over Moroni's head. That should be used sparingly. Too many times the music swelled with feeling but I didn't see why. It felt forced. The end was anticlimactic for me. I was relieved it was over.

I left very disappointed and a bit embarrassed I had publicly shared my excitement toward this film.

Someone in the process should have been more honest with the creator and reigned in his enthusiasm for the project until it could have been a better end product.

I'm directing this at the creator, director, producer, lead actor Darin Scott, because he will clearly read these. I wanted to like this, I was telling all my friends to go see it, then I saw it. Other reviewers have been spot on with their negative assessments, so I'll try to be constructive as well.

1. Darin, it's nice you got into shape for this movie, but apparently the whole movie is just a glamor shot for you.

2. What's with the girl bosses? The sisters don't make sense as characters, and terrible actors.

3. What was the point of having another language spoke a little bit? The ones that speak the Nephite language don't have an accent, except for Billy Zane, who sounds like Mr. Krabs 4. The soundtrack. OMG. It's well done, but it is relentless, it never stops, it's this somber, overbearing sonic landscape that never gives you a break.

5. This story had almost zero to do with Moroni other than burying the plates.

6. Darin, your acting is one note. You use pregnant pauses and slomo for effect. You don't use it constantly.

7. The editing is weird as hell. Things just jump back and forth with no connection. Like, what's with the black dog? That didn't make sense.

8. Training montage? Really? Come on dude. I guess you needed to show the breath holding training to support your escape later, but I think you just want people to see you in a speedo.

Anyone interested in Mormonism, do NOT see this movie. It won't teach you anything. The story is total fiction. This looks like a high school film project. It might have worked as a 15-20 minute short, but if I'd been watching this at home instead of spending $30 at the theater, we would have turned it off. My wife flat out fell asleep and I almost did.

Do better.

I contributed to this movie, was so excited to go and see it! But what a disappointment it was! I was expecting an actual story from the Book of Mormon only to find a fictional made up love story about Moroni that was at some moments literally laughable. I'm embarrassed to say "go and see it." Darin Scot is from my home town in Utah and is also related to me through by mother's side of the family and I wish I could say great job cousin! But it felt like he centered the whole movie around himself and furthering his career instead of on a feature film about a true story from the Book of Mormon. I am very disappointed in a fictionalization about a true person, Moroni, the angel who stands atop of many of our temples. He was all alone for how long, we do not know. To me it is a disgrace to his name to create this type of fictionalized storyline.

The Room. Samurai Cop. The Oath. These three films stand in a class of their own.

No matter which way you look at this, it's very amateur. Right off the bat, it was obvious the editing was very shoddy, and there is hideously overdone color correction throughout the entire thing. Besides some drone footage, the camera work is very bland, and there is a frustrating lack of deep focus shots, leaving any scenery just a blur in the background. The worst thing is it's irredeemably boring. Almost nothing happens, and scene to scene things are repetitive. The camera doesn't do anything interesting, and neither do the characters. The writing is as weak as the editing. It was very forced and cringey, and more than once I groaned audibly from something akin to physical pain. Lastly, and I mean no offense to the guy, but I was getting tired of seeing Darin Scott's face; he just doesn't have the charisma to justify that amount of screen time (or the number of thirst traps he wrote in for himself...).

I'm happy that the guy got to make his movie in the exact same way I'm happy for Tommy Wiseau.

If you want to look at this movie on a technical level, I encourage you to move past this review and read the many other lengthy entries. I agree with most of the ones I have read personally. I really seek only to criticize the film on terms of its faithfulness to it's stated mission and the source material it is said to be based on.

To be frank, this is not a Book of Mormon film. While it claims inspiration from the events and people recorded therein, it does very little to communicate the message of the Book of Mormon. This film did not deserve to be associated with scripture and had very little reason to. This film could have substituted characters and places for others of similar but fictitious nature and the movie would have faired much better.

The romance was totally unnecessary and it totally sidelined the importance of the "message" of the film. In spite of being a faith-based film, it was devoid of anything spiritually-minded. God and Jesus are only mentioned in passing dialogue, not the central focus of the film. This film should have shouldered the purpose of showing "unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever-And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations..."

If you are going to dramatize any portion of scripture, respect the purpose of the scriptures. These plain and precious things are precious pearls, and to make a film like this and claim association is to trample them under your feet and turn and rend the very men and women who devoted their lives to bringing truth to the earth.

Nice try, Darin Scott, you have my respect, but never do something like this again.

Come on people, this is not a 1 rating... This is clearly a historical fiction. Of course this takes some creative liberty with the love story, which initially made me a little uncomfortable, but I can see why he took this approach. Given Moroni was alone at the end of the Nephite era, this was a unique way to try to tell his story as who else would he talk to? I would have liked to see more of the historical context, but this take does do a pretty decent job of representing the character of Moroni and enough reference to portray the brutality of the time. I think a perfectly accurate portrayal of the Book of Mormon would be rated R for violence, but I think this depiction was tastefully done to give the idea but keep it family friendly. Great music and pretty good acting and cinematography for a lower budget film.

I've never took it upon myself to write a movie review until after seeing this film. I didn't even have an account on imdb and made one just to write this.

The trailer and the little messages by the director (and main character) before and after the film seem to have nothing to do with the movie. In his messages he is talking about how the film is about the book of mormon love, peace, christ, and that it can change peoples lives. So that's what I expected when I sat down in the theatre.

Instead, I was utterly disappointed and confused. The show was not about christ and barely mentioned things from the book of mormon. It was a strange love story with a lot of strange components. Like neither the way they kept switching from whatever ancient language and english made no sense, and I don't know why the girl was speaking broken english at first (which the actress did pretty bad at).

Also so many scenes seemed to just be the director/main character trying to show off his muscles. Why is he curling the golden plated and the camera zoomed in on his biceps? Why was there a random part of him doing pull ups on a tree? Very weird.

Just everything about this movie was horrendous, it felt like watching a roughy draft/failed project.

This guy sure is full of himself. It's a vanity project for the writer/director/star. And the call to his church to support it or else was way out of line. Tell me your movie sucks without telling me it sucks. If it were good it would stand on its own, church or not. And besides, he acts like this is a true story and tries to give it that kind of gravitas. No dude, sorry, your delusions aren't real. About the only saving grace is the score, that is pretty well done. And some of the cinematography is pretty great, but you can't screw up a beautiful nature scene like a meadow or forest. And Billy Zane, you're not a pirate. That accent was grating.

I wanted this movie to be good and even donated to the production. It was so bad though and I'm embarrassed for anyone who took part in it. The story was poorly written and was just not accurate and a bit sacrilegious. It was boring and the acting was terrible. The movie jumped from scene to scene awkwardly and just had strange random things that made no sense. The writer ripped off scenes from Gladiator, but did them extremely poor. I felt like he wrote this movie to glorify himself and ended up embarrassing himself. Do not waste your time or money on this one. I really hope someone can create an entertaining series that the BOM stories deserves, because this wasn't it.

My wife and I went on an overnight trip to the Bentonville temple and had come across an ad for this movie and decided to give it a go; The director had cast some spiritual credibility on himself by saying that he had gone through a near death experience, insinuating that a revelatory experience was what spawned this production.

I had no idea what to expect. I did have a reserved hope that the film would be a higher quality B of M production than other attempts I'd seen.

I didn't even see an attempt to portray a story from the Book of Mormon. This was a purely "made up" speculative story; a fantasy that someone created out of thin air (or maybe from mists of darkness)...

In the Book of Mormon you have a myriad of inspiring TRUE stories that could have been dramatized! Did this producer not think any of those stories were good enough? That his speculative story surpassed those actually in the book? A few examples of stories he could have portrayed that would have been TRUE and a thousand times better, and much more entertaining to boot:

-Nephi and his brothers obtaining the brass plates

• Lehi's family traveling to the promised land (the challenges, the miracles, family drama, the Liahona)

• Abinadi's testimony to King Noah and priests; and Alma's escape and ministry

• Ammon's defense of the King's servants

• Kingmen vs Freemen and Captain Moroni/Pahoran

• The Jaredites

I could go on and on. There are so many amazing stories in the Book of Mormon that it is shockingly disappointing that this producer chose this route. I was horribly disappointed. It feels like a very misguided and selfish direction was taken, with complete disregard for core audience -members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Why did I give it 2 stars instead of 1? Because Billy Zane does a great job as the villain - the only thing I liked about the movie.

The Oath

Like most films I've seen lately, I either don't know anything about it, or I've only seen a teaser trailer. I had no idea that this was a near literal interpretation of the believed texts that formed the Book of Mormon.

I have no problem with religious films. There are the most amazing theories posed in even the greatest of fiction that touch on divinity and faith, so why not enjoy a writer's perception of non fiction, and see where it goes?

Well, in this film, it goes absolutely nowhere. This movie could have been 10-15 minutes long. The overly dramatic acting of Moroni is so bad that even Billy Zane's character smirks and rolls his eyes. I don't really think he was acting when that happened.

The plot isn't bad, in theory. The usual Romeo and Juliet-esque love affair unfolds between two warring sects, ending in tragedy. It's really the acting and the cinematography in which lies the flaws.

I did enjoy the music as the composer did a great job working with a really bad script. I know that the lead actor, director, writer (all the same person) feels he did a heartfelt interpretation, because he says so before the movie starts, but my goodness did this flop.

Go and see for yourself, especially if you are of the Mormon faith. Maybe you'll see more than I did.

I've been looking forward to seeing this film for quite some time and it did not disappoint. I was lucky to attend a Thursday night premiere with the lead actor/director. If you're not aware, the film is based on the character Moroni from the Book of Mormon. Since we don't know everything about Moroni's life from the book's text, the film takes some creative liberties and builds a solid story about love, forgiveness, redemption, freedom, and peace. I was pleasantly surprised and touched by the storyline. The film's score was also surprisingly good. Although not perfect, the film did a very good job of telling the story of Moroni, but more than that, it teaches us what's most important in life.

But I just cringed through this vanity production, especially considering the earnest introduction about 13 years in the making , etc. This project probably started with good intentions then got away from the star director. The Oath borrowed heavily from The Gladiator (2000) with the basic storyline, costumes and shot composition. The dialog was awkward and acting was amateurish. There was no chemistry between the leads. The leading lady lacked character for the role. There were many, many shots of the star/director held for way too long with dramatic music soaring. What did that mean? Maybe the star director knew but viewers don't and it didn't move the story along so it came across as vanity. Check out his handsome face and fabulous biceps glistening in the sunlight! The first 3/4 of them movie just drags. What is the black dog thing? Is that symbolism? What are the major values and beliefs this movie is suppose to be about? Why did Moroni have to flip the plates for her to read? So many strange things that weren't explained. Billy Zane effected a pirate like accent. Where did that come from in that period and region? I literally shuddered during the movie and I felt bad for another opportunity squandered. One scene that should have evoked tears was in shockingly bad taste. I am still waiting for a decent major production from our church. There must be some way to take a section of the book of Mormon and make it exciting and real...not let hubris spoil it. One person shouldn't control everything without experienced, objective input.

This film was originally a crowd funded film. I even donated to it. After seeing the short concept film, I was happy at the idea that an epic film featuring a prophet from the Book Of Mormon might be on the big screen. And I was pleased that it would be made as a three part film series based on the reign of judges by a member of my faith. I didn't want Hollywood producing a film relating to the scriptures, because look at what Hollywood has done to the story of Moses and Noah. So Sad.

Unfortunately , or fortunately, the funding for the reign of judges 3 part movie fell through so the director/writer and lead role had to condense the script to one feature film. I was led to believe it was still going to focus on the true telling of Moroni and his mission and about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It did not. It instead seemed to focus on eluded violence not described in the book. The true story is definitely violent at times, like all scriptures are, but its focus is on the message of what happens to mankind when they fall away from the teachings of Christ. Instead, this film focuses more on made up characters and disturbing images.

The focus also seemed to be showing off muscles and vanity of the actor playing what was supposed to be a humble obedient prophet of God.

I was also sad to see the lead character in a brief bedroom scene with obvious implied nudity. Again, I don't understand how showing a prophet in bed helps spread a spiritual message of Hope. It wasn't necessary, but instead a worldly distraction from what the purpose of the Holy Scriptures set out to teach.

I realize that added story needs to be in films based on true stories to keep the story moving and fill in details not provided in historical information, but please stick to character development and to the message of the story.

The acting was cheesy at times from the lesser known actors, and it was edited in an overly dramatic way as to force drama and feeling into an otherwise meaningless movie trying to mimic films like Braveheart. I'm sorry for being harsh, but the Book Of Mormon means to much to me to allow this film to be an example of the Book Of Mormon to people who don't know better.