The Oath

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.

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 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 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.

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.