Customer Reviews

The Book Of Mormon Volume I The Journey

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I did like this movie. My purpose in watching it was to get a general outline--or at least a feel--for what the Book of Mormon contains. Additionally, in fairness, the movie should be compared with other movies produced by religious houses, such as Ten Clouds (Left Behind I, II, & III, etc.). In this light, the film fairs well. The acting is reasonably believable, though occasionally modern dialogue slips into this historic drama. The effects, while probably subpar by Hollywood standards, are high-medium for religious films. OK, the scene where Nehi "shocks" his brothers was pretty feeble!

The plot is the key here. While the target audience would certainly be primarily Mormon, the LDS church surely hopes that some non-members will see the film and become curious. In that vein, the film does a decent job of presenting a story that very few actually know. In doing so, the story feels very much like one that might have been done about Joseph, or the 10 Commandments, etc. In fact, some of the parallels were clearly intentionally. This story is meant to feel like a biblical epic.

I was surprised to learn that the movie came out in 2002. Nearly five years, and still no part II? Like Left Behind, future episodes are likely to be direct-to-dvd. The big let down for fans who like this series, is that there seems to be a distinct possiblitity it will not see its way to completion.

Bottom-line: Three stars for a religious movie that compares favorably with others in the genre, and succeeds in creating the feel of a biblical epic. Detractions are occasional uneven scenes, and the possiblity, even likelihood, that this series will not be completed.

Good things: Accurate to the Book of Mormon, felt the Spirit at points, good introduction to the B.o.M. for kids and investigators, good musical score, some really good camera shots. The movie provides good "fill in the gaps" for the in-between events and dialogue that the Book of Mormon leaves out. This movie is close to how I picture things in my mind when I read the Book of Mormon.

Not so good things: The dialogue is cheesey at points, low production values, you often feel like you're watching amateur actors from a local community theater, only Laban (Michael Flynn) had any real "screen presence", some scenes sorely needed more background music, some camera shots were badly staged. Like any movie that is made from a book, it doesn't quite live up to _all_ the things you picture in your mind as you read. Some fellow viewers didn't like it because it didn't correspond to their mental picture of the Book of Mormon.

Given the low budget ($1.5 million), they did a great job with what they had to work with.

The movie covers the time period of 1st and 2nd Nephi from the Book of Mormon. I hope they continue to make more installments.

If you love the Book of Mormon, then I think you'll want to have this movie in your collection. The message and lessons it gives outweigh the low production values.

My wife and I are about as secular-minded and far from Mormon as you can get (we've never lived in an area where Mormonism is prevalent or even common), but she's something of an amateur religion scholar and so we rented this movie out of curiosity. Our expectations were rock-bottom - there's some pretty bad and amateurish religious cinema out there. We were pleasantly surprised that the film is entirely watchable - not something I would have picked up on my own, but not the kind of thing such that were I forced to watch it I would need to claw my eyes out. The storm-tossed boat sequence looked competently-done. The dream-sequence part where Nephi collapsed in the desert was actually quite good. On the negative side, the quality of the acting varied considerably among the actors - the guy who played Laman did a much better job in my opinion than the guy who played Lemuel. The parts with angel visions also looked kind of cheesy.

I can't imagine this movie making the story of the Book of Mormon look any more plausible to people not already convinced or inclined to join the LDS church. If the director or producers expected hordes of people to grab the nearest copy of the Book of Mormon they could find after watching this, they'll be disappointed. Nor is this on the level of Cecil B. De Mille's classic historical and biblical epics - an excessively ambitious order to fill on what I've read was just $2 million. It's not even close. However, I wasn't embarrassed for the Mormon community when I watched this and there's a certain heartwarming sincerity about the film that Hollywood doesn't easily duplicate.

I've heard that Mormons generally don't like this movie. They may be equipped to notice certain doctrinal/technical/cultural flaws that I'm not. But I can tell them that if non-Mormons are not favorably disposed toward their religion, it won't be because of this movie (assuming they've seen it). Take heart in the fact that religious movies can be, and frequently are worse. A lot worse.

Alright, first I'm a convert... I must say... with the budget they had to do this movie, the script is great and fairly true to the Book of Mormon (and it does say in the beginning that some things have been changed and what not to let you know its not exact). The acting is quite good, and the locations and sets are just as good as in movies such as the Scorpion King. I must say this is worth buying.

I can't understand why so many people go to such great lengths to attempt to discredit this movie based on their religious beliefs. I thought it was a great movie. I didn't realize that it was a 'part1' until it was almost over, though. That was the only real disappointment. I would reccommend it for its entertainment value alone. Those who feel predisposed to discredit the Mormon religion should read the book and find a different arena to pass their judgement. I don't believe that it is necessary to discourage people from viewing this movie.

I have read the other reviews for this film and I can't begin to see how people that claim to be LDS can say it is an embarrassment. What you have to remember is that it is a low budget movie and did not have the budget of movies like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Just remember we are not perfect. I am LDS and I enjoyed this movie. It has humor and was definately serious. I think that if more movies are made they will just get better and better. Those of us should just be thankful that movies that have anything to do with our faith are being shown in theaters (I am also aware that there was "poetic lisence" takeken in this film and it says so before the films begins) so get a grip and don't be so uptight about it being a low budget film.

I really appreciate the effort that was put into making this production. I'd like to see more of them. Give people an insight into what LDS people really believe in.

I thought this movie was absolutly beautiful, as well as accurate and informative. As a new convert to the church I really appreciated the Book of Mormon from a visual perspective. Several life-long members have also told me that they appreciated getting a better "picture" of the events. I would suggest this movie to anyone, mormon or not. I was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when I first saw this, in fact I was rather against the church. However, even still I not only enjoyed this movie for the story line and visual effects, but I was touched deeply by it. I am very hopeful that more films will be made, hopefully eventually following the events all the way through the Book of Mormon.

Okay, if you are interested in this movie you're probably already a member of the LDS, RLDS or some other denomination that believes in the Book of Mormon. So I won't discuss plot points, because we've all already read the book and we know what it's about. And this movie follows the book pretty well.

So, I'll get into details like acting and production values, and how I felt about them.

Overall, it was above average for a non-Hollywood production. This is no big budget blockbuster, but really, they did okay.

The acting is adequate to good. I thought that the guy who played Nephi (Noah Danby) was surprisingly good. Not *great* or anything -- no one's going to get an acting award -- but he was okay. He seemed natural enough and was able to say his lines with some degree of ease. Though, some of the dialog had that somewhat stiff "Scripture" way about it, which makes it hard for anyone to say without sounding stilted. But for the most part, he was good. And he certainly looked the part physically -- handsome and well-built. I'm sure he's going to be major heartthrob material!

Laman was played by Mark Gollaher, who gave an effective performance, though he kind of chewed the scenery at times. He seemed to get better about half-way through the film. Or, perhaps I just got used to him. The guy who played Laban (Michael Flynn) was the best actor in the bunch, and no surprise -- he's got a lot of TV and movie credits. He was a great villain.

A musical score by Robert C. Bowden was really quite lovely and evocative. Always appropriate with different sounds to accompany different parts of the film. Lush and effective orchestration.

I thought the photography was pretty good -- as far as the scenery goes. Some of the lighting and composition was occasionally lacking (in my opinion), but the scenery was always stunning. (They shot a lot of this film in Utah. Golly -- I wonder why they chose Utah?) "The Promised Land" was shot in Hawaii, and they certainly made good use of that. Wonderful use of aerial shots. The sets and special effects (the use of miniatures) were also pretty good. I was very impressed considering that I assume their budget wasn't the largest. However, overall the "look" of the film was kind of lacking in grit and an authentic atmosphere. It had a sanitized, almost sterile appearance to it at times. Everything was too clean.

Editing and direction seemed average to me. Not bad, but not great. Just okay. There were a few scenes that lagged and but overall, it was adequate.

The costumes made me cringe a little, though. Please, *no synthetic fibers*! It looked like they were using cotton/polyester blends or something. The costumes all looked just a little too stiff, too clean and kind of fake. The fabric's stiffness was also noticed by the rest of my family, some of whom don't have the best eyesight. Also, any amour or metal costume element looked lightweight and unconvincing. The costumes were the most obvious flaw as far as I was concerned.

For a non-Hollywood, not-terribly-high-budget film with mostly unknown actors, this was really okay. If you are interested in the subject matter (Book of Mormon) then you'll probably want to see this. Do go in with a certain amount of lowered expectations because this is not a slick, polished high-budget movie with big name stars. But it's a nice film which tells something important to the audience it is directed at. It's worth a look.

I've also had a peek at the DVD, and I think they did a wonderful job with it -- there are enough extras which make it worth buying. There are 10 deleted scenes, some documentaries on the production of the film, subtitles, director's commentary (which I haven't heard that yet) and trailers. Also, the *look* of the DVD quite professional. I was quite pleased with the DVD!

If you are looking for an Academy Award nomination, don't bother watching it. If you are looking for another epic of the scale of "Ten Commandments" don't bother with it either. This film was made with a much more economical budget and unknown stars so let's keep things in perspective. Some folks are expecting special effects of a "Star Wars" nature on a shoe-string budget? Give me a break folks ... get real!

Overall the movie is a great depiction of the first part of the Book Of Mormon. The message is simple enough and follows the exact simpleness of the actual book itself. However it appears that like the book, many have missed the point and as such are waiting for the special effects and great story line to carry this film.

At the end of it all, the film brings us closer to the characters and stories which we find in the first few books of the Book of Mormon. It may not be an academy award winner, but it is an above average video which does carry a great deal of emotion with it.