The Book of Esther

I gave this one star, because you can't give less than one star. Attempted to watch this on one of the streaming services. Making it less than half the way through, had to watch something else. The writing, continuity; everything about this "movie" makes watching paint dry more appealing and worthwhile of my time.

Because of this, I asked myself who would dare to put out something this bad for a very small fringe of viewers? Doing some research, found out the same company who released "God is not Dead" is the culprit. Refusing to see this pile of garbage as well because of the same "fine" concern for detail, I fail understood how the audience for "God" and "Esther" is would find any of their movies "entertainment".

My advice for anyone who wasted your time on this or any film from this company, the producers of these movies should give you an apology and refund.

As I was watching this movie, the whole time I'm thinking, "this doesn't happen!" This movie is called "The Book of Esther". If this is what the movie is called, let it be true to its story. The fact that none of the events that happened in the movie happened in the book really saddens me. When I first saw this title, I thought, "oh okay. They made a movie about Queen Esther. I hope it's not like that 'Noah' (2014) movie, where the movie wasn't true to the actual story. The storyline is okay; only very very few parts were true to the actual biblical story, but other than that, this is not what happened. At all. They might as well rename the movie and the characters because I don't remember any of this happening. Unless I've been reading the story wrong my whole life, there were far too many errors for it to be named "The Book of Esther." Additionally, even if I didn't know the story of Esther, it looks like the movie was poorly made; when switching scenes, the outside home/palace would be shown to say "this is where the next scene is". The outside home/ palace that's shown is clearly computerized. I noticed right when I saw that it was poorly made. At some points, I thought I was watching a low budget theater show. I'm extremely disappointed with how it turned out and I do not recommend this movie to anyone who's interested in the story of Esther.

I am saddened to say that this film is absolutely atrocious. I watched it a couple of months ago at a Youth Bible Study, and still cannot fathom the atrocities that I saw. Before I begin, I'd like to say that I am a fan of PureFlix and respect the fact that the production company does its best to make high quality Christian films as a means to spread the Gospel. However, the 'high quality' thing I just said up top extends millions of miles away from what one sees on 'The Book of Esther.' It is one of the worst movies I have seen in my entire life. (And I've watched crappy TV movies from both Lifetime and Sci-fy channel.)

To make my list of reasons easier, I will number them: 1. The CG is laughable. 2. The acting is as if the producers hired volunteers off the street instead of legit actors. 3. The props looked as if they were bought at Walmart - no lie. (e.g. Queen Vashti's wig looks like it was bought at the after-Halloween clearance section from Walmart. 4. All actors had different accents. (e.g. Queen Esther sounded like she came straight out of Los Angeles, which really threw me off). 5. Slight inaccuracies to the biblical account here and there, but nothing too major.

All in all, this movie is horrible. I know that budgets are not high enough to turn the movie into a big action-y straight-out-of-Hollywood movie, nor do I expect it to be, but I believe PureFlix could have done way better than this.

This entire movie could be summed up as someone who doesn't like, or understand, the book of Esther; so they decide they will plug their own invented story into the backdrop of a Biblical setting. I might expect this from a secular movie company that arrogantly thinks their storytelling is more relevant and interesting than a Biblical account that has stood for thousands of years; but to see a supposedly Christian movie making company do this is mind-boggling. They are suppose to have respect for the source material, but so far they have been the ones to butcher it more than any other Esther movie I've come across.

The production values are rock bottom. The acting is terrible. That would be forgivable if they actually made an effort to faithfully convey the account of Esther based on the Bible and history.

They've tried to invent a story they probably think is more relevant to a modern American audience. The entire point of the Biblical story is lost, and it's full of anachronisms from modern American culture and values.

Rather than an accurate picture of ancient middle eastern culture where Esther could be killed for entering into the presence of the king uninvited, we see a modern American woman who suggests that things are going to have to change once they are married to be more of an equal partnership; to which the king aquieseced somewhat meekly.

Rather than an accurate story about a woman who is taken to be a concubine for a despotic king, in which they may only have on sexual encounter with her never seeing the king again unless he decides to marry her; it is replaced with a modern American tale of a woman who is getting older wondering when she will meet the right man, and involves her insisting to the king that they will have to wait before they are married before they will have any kind of physical romance.

If you want to make up your own story, with it's own values and message, then go do so - just don't force this pablum into a setting that claim to be based on the Biblical book of Esther. Although they do have a disclaimer about some things being changed, what they don't tell you is that nothing of significance about the original story has been retained aside from names.

Some of the actors are good...some are terrible...but overall it is just like watching a student film by a Game of Thrones fan filmed with people who are taking an acting class at their local community college. The lighting isn't bad. I spent a lot of time watching it trying to decipher whether or not it was just the budget that was making it bad and I really think that is nothing to do with it (although some of the costumes were like something ordered off of Amazon.) However it was really just the writing and the acting that ruined it. For example the lady that played Esther...are you kidding me? Just awful. And the guy that played the eunuch proved the makers of this movie watch a lot of Game of Thrones. Obviously some of these people got their parts because they knew the people making the film.