artyyeo
We've watched both this version of the Esther as well as (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168331/?ref_=rvi_tt).Here's my take ...This version of the Esther certainly reveals a larger budget. It has great CGI effects and the costumes are more beautiful. Even the palace interior designs were better looking. Everywhere you look, the physical part of the movie was adorned with eye-popping glamor and beauty. I would rank this category a 7-8 out of 10.But, when one watches a biblically based story, one is looking for authenticity, historical accuracy and heart-felt conviction. Besides the introduction which linked the hatred of Haman's people to King Saul wiping out their people in the book of 1 Samuel, the rest of the movie moved too much away from the biblical story. So, what kind of inaccuracies am I talking about?Towards the end, the queen was supposed to invite the king to two banquets before she revealed the petition. It was collapsed into one. The real Esther never had a boy-friend but this Hollywood movie added its own into the story to sensationalize.Next, Mordecai was supposed to be wailing and crying in the streets when he found out that his people will be annihilated. Wailing was emphasized in the Bible to indict deep and extreme emotional outcry. This emotional content was very subdued and skimped over.Also, the part about Esther telling Mordecai to instruct the people of Israel to pray and fast for 3 days and nights was again lightly skimped over. This is where it needs to be emphasized and emotions poured on it with versus quoted and praying depicted. But, I saw none of those in this movie.With a star-studded cast such as Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif and John Rys-Davies, if the story content were presented in a more accurate manner, it would have been a success. The stars did their acting well and so did Tiffiny DuPont. The rest were average in their acting.In short, I was pretty disappointed with this movie for the lack of inspiring spiritual contents.
haddesah
My husband and I were so looking forward to this movie after hearing such incredible praise and reviews from TBN...it was such a disappointment!!! we could not believe why so many people on TBN had highly praised this film! It was so poorly acted, more on the side of Bollywood type B movies. The acting was bad and dialogue atrocious. Its an insult to the true courage and nature of Esther and what she did for the Jewish nation. And, as usual, all the biblical stories that are made into movies, not one of them tell the whole truth but rather do what Hollywood does...using poetic license, to the detriment of historical fact, which is what should have been really portrayed to bring across the true story of Esther for Christians and especially for the secular society. It could have been a very good medium to draw unbelievers into the Kingdom of God, but sadly this will not happen when they realise how disjointed and confusing the story line is. We will not be buying this DVD and will be very weary of TBN's future recommendations.
lolitabonitaboo
lets start off by saying i think this movie did us,Persians no justice with choosing tiffany DuPont, I'm ashamed of the vision she made westerns believe ,Esther might be a Jew,but she was a Persian too, this movie's Esther is immature,selfish and sneaky,exactly characteristics that Iranians forbid their children and family fr having. NOW about the movie,Luke goss was too stiff and theatrical ,even tho i love him i can NOT think of him as the best option,tiffany DuPont?don't even get me started on here,in one scene she had tan lines,it just,makes me sick when directors and staff miss details that important, the rest of the movie was a stupid slow rip off of Muhammad,seriously waste of money,time and energy,buying the DVD was the most stupid decision i have ever made
milla54
In my entire life, I have only walked out of 3 movies. This was one of them.From a production standpoint, the acting was wooden and unbelievable, the costumes were opulent, but often badly fitting, or just ugly. The makeup looks like it was applied by a beauty-school drop out. There was unnecessary amounts of cheesy, canned dialog that was painful. The relationships depicted felt fake and false, and not at all realistic or deep.The main character, Ester was childish, immature, and so overly sugary-sweet it was intolerable. Her "love" for Xerxes was awkward and unbelievable.More over, it did not come close to actually conveying the true depth and beauty of the biblical Ester story. This film took the plot points of that story and then managed to completely remove the whole soul from it. Ester's quiet strength is entirely lost.Lastly, this film is chock full of anachronisms, from Ester literacy level, to the thick American accents.It was all around bad. Please, if you are looking for a good film, look somewhere else.
AD
