So, I appreciate the soberness of this film and overall relate to it better than the 'Utah-ish', caricatured LDS comedy films of the early 2000's. In my estimation, the movie actually improved as it went along, which seems like an at times rarer quality as many films will do the opposite.
I didn't care for the light demasculinization of Moroni toward the beginning, (aka his future wife having better use of the bow and arrow than him, etc.) Yet, that seems to be a pretty common tone in movies these days. However, in my estimation Moroni became a more redeeming and stronger character when placed in a corner during the second half of the movie. He turned it up several notches as he finally had to fight back against his antagonists.
I appreciated elements of the production value and thought it was about as good as could be hoped for in a thrift budgeted movie. Obviously, some films buffs may think otherwise as art is at some point subjective and people can be pretty spoiled these days with amazing visual effects and filming techniques.
The death scene of his wife was tragic and sad, rather jarring as I suppose it was meant to be. In my opinion, the best acting scenes were when Moroni lamented the loss of his wife (the scene after she was initially found dead) and he was preparing her for burial. The second best acting scene would be the initial fight scene.
I did feel that the movie started out with script dialogue that was rather scant and at times under told the story and made it slightly difficult to follow by not furnishing quite enough information. Some reviews complained about their often beginning dialog in a foreign tongue, only to transition to English. I did not share that gripe. I think that's been done in plenty of movies and it's understood that we hear it in their tongue and then are allowed to hear it in our own as the dialogue goes along.
Although I could see where some might not like the quick flashes to scenes of Moroni's memory or visions, I appreciated those as enriching the overall gravity of the message and instructing us more of where Moroni's mind was going as things went along. I thought it was an interesting adaption, some creative license taken but with fairly good effect, highlighting problems that may plague us today as it similarly may have the inhabitants of old.
Overall, maybe 6.7 out of 10 stars or around 3.5 out of 5.
I didn't care for the light demasculinization of Moroni toward the beginning, (aka his future wife having better use of the bow and arrow than him, etc.) Yet, that seems to be a pretty common tone in movies these days. However, in my estimation Moroni became a more redeeming and stronger character when placed in a corner during the second half of the movie. He turned it up several notches as he finally had to fight back against his antagonists.
I appreciated elements of the production value and thought it was about as good as could be hoped for in a thrift budgeted movie. Obviously, some films buffs may think otherwise as art is at some point subjective and people can be pretty spoiled these days with amazing visual effects and filming techniques.
The death scene of his wife was tragic and sad, rather jarring as I suppose it was meant to be. In my opinion, the best acting scenes were when Moroni lamented the loss of his wife (the scene after she was initially found dead) and he was preparing her for burial. The second best acting scene would be the initial fight scene.
I did feel that the movie started out with script dialogue that was rather scant and at times under told the story and made it slightly difficult to follow by not furnishing quite enough information. Some reviews complained about their often beginning dialog in a foreign tongue, only to transition to English. I did not share that gripe. I think that's been done in plenty of movies and it's understood that we hear it in their tongue and then are allowed to hear it in our own as the dialogue goes along.
Although I could see where some might not like the quick flashes to scenes of Moroni's memory or visions, I appreciated those as enriching the overall gravity of the message and instructing us more of where Moroni's mind was going as things went along. I thought it was an interesting adaption, some creative license taken but with fairly good effect, highlighting problems that may plague us today as it similarly may have the inhabitants of old.
Overall, maybe 6.7 out of 10 stars or around 3.5 out of 5.