A note, I am an active Latter-day Saint.
First the bad...
I doubt Jews in Jeresalem in 600 BC looked like Anglo-saxons. Please find people that at least look Jewish to play the parts of Jews.
The make-up; a white woman with brown make-up to make her look Aboriginal or Jewish still looks like a white woman with make-up.
This movie was low-budget, and it looked like it. Everything seemed artificial; costumes, sets, minatures, it felt cheap. It didn't seem aged are blended in.
Lehi preaching, it seems the only thing he says is "The City will be destroyed, don't you understand" over and over. Couldn't think of any other dialogue?
Where were the master or establishing shots? There were very few, they would have helped the movie feel more complete.
The language seems inconsitant, sometimes it's modern, sometimes it's King James English. Pick one and stick to it.
This movie came off as low-rent, this is especially noted when Nephi is struggling to get free from his binds and the audience is laughing, rather than sympathising. This is becasue some parts of the movie are cheesy and that results in the audience not taking it seriously.
Cheesy parts #1... the brothers getting shocked, should have just left that out. Makes it seems like Nephi has magic powers, comes off weak.
Cheesy parts #2... Lehi's fake beard, it changes once from long straight and grey to short curly white.
Cheesy Parts #3... The aging of the characters wasn't belivable.
Cheesy Parts #4... the voice of God depicted with a deep voice and allot of reverb, cliché. Find a new way to do this. How about a soft whisper?
Cheesy Parts #5... Lemuals re-action to the angel, supposed to be a serious moment but is laughable because of his reaction.
Cheesy Parts $5... The Lamanites at the end dancing around a fire with war paint. Comes off over the top.
Now the good...
The acting was good 95% of the time, Laman was the best acted in this film.
Laban being murdered, I really like how this was done (other than the clichéd treatment of the voice of God) and it had good emotion.
Nephi's vision of being shown was is to come, again good emotion, and good editing.
Montage while Nephi is bound, well done.
We get a good sense of the conflict between Nephi and Laman.
I thought that the added dialogue (stuff not from scriptures) was good and blended scenes well. I enjoyed the added homour and seeing Nephi and his brothers bond after having conflicts.
The Joseph Smith stuff I thought was well done, except Moroni's visit, just seemed out of place the way it was done.
Final word. Before the next one, take the time to secure more money and make it the way it should be, a grand epic. Pretty good job for a first time director and allot of first time actors. I wouldn't see this one again but I would see the next installment.
