Plot Summary
Taken from their cherished hometown Jerusalem as young men, Daniel and his three friends must learn to navigate their new culture, Babylon, without compromising their Jewish faith. Even when it appears as though all hope is lost, Yahweh continues to give Daniel and his friends opportunities to influence their own captors for the better. As Daniel’s life progressed, he was given more and more chances to influence world politics by simply serving and obeying Yahweh. The life of Daniel is one that can be modeled by Christians of all generations and cultures.
Production Quality (.5 point)
Unfortunately, The Book of Daniel falls into the infamous Biblical film traps when it comes to production. The sets and costuming scream church play and demonstrate a severely limited budget combined with lack of attention to historical authenticity. There are no outside sequences, except for one, that are not replaced with extremely obvious CGI. There are also some annoying special effects. For what it’s worth, the camera work is not horrible and the editing is passable, even though the story is very choppy. In summary, PureFlix Bible productions leave much to be desired.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
It is commendable to cover all the stories in the Biblical book of Daniel in one movie and to transpose it with Daniel’s God-given influence over historical monarchs. But in this pursuit, the viewer gets lost in a very disjointed storyline. There is simply too much content and not enough character development. We at Box Office Revolution continually wonder why Biblical characters always have to be portrayed in the movies as inhuman and lofty—they were regular people! The dialogue of The Book of Daniel also reminds one of a poorly written church play, very robotic. The bottom line is that while there was a mountain of potential to be found in this sort of plot, it was never unearthed. We are only left with a pathetic attempt.
Acting Quality (1 point)
While the acting is not glaringly bad, it is overly theatrical and overly practiced. There are little to no emotions expressed. Again, it gives off the impression that Bible characters were not real people, but like talking wax figures. We believe that if these actors had been afforded better lines and better coaching, something more could have materialized. But alas, we are once again left wondering what could have been.
Conclusion
Bible movies need to be made, but not like this. So many audiences need to know what is in the Bible, but films like The Book of Daniel only serve to further turn people off, making them think that the Scriptures are boring and full of inaccessible characters we can’t relate to and fantastical events that will never happen again. The truth is, nothing could be more of a lie. The Bible has many historical and realistic narratives full of flawed and believable characters that need to be depicted on the big screen properly. We look forward to the day when this will happen.
Final Rating: 2 out of 10 points
Box Office Revolution 
I loved it though I’m not quite finished watching it.
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I liked it, they did the best they could with what little budget they had. The only issue that is bothering me is at the end credits it says “The persons and events in this motion picture are ficticious. Any similarity to actual persons or events is unintentional.” This is not a fictional story, it is in the Bible.
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Watching this film was like watching a stage play, due not only to the way it was presented, but also due to its lack of true exteriors. However, I disagree with the critic’s use of the term “church” play. This was professionally done, and overacting by one of Nebuchadnezzar’s mystics aside, the major actors carried themselves well.
While it does not have the “wow factor” that many people crave in a movie, it tells the story of Daniel’s faithfulness to God quite well. Robert Miano carried the role comfortably and believably.
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Thanks for sharing!
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Bible movies are tragically bad. At least this one isn’t bizarre and unwatchable like the Esther one but it is still laughable. Christian writers need to realize that Biblical stories can have wide appeal to all kinds of audiences. There is no reason to only try to appeal to the church play crowd. It is almost like they don’t believe that these stories were real and interesting. Sometimes I wonder if they are just fulfilling their quota of Bible movies for the year in order to please a certain portion of their audience. I would love to see a Bible that has just as much time and effort put into to it as any mainstream movie in order to really bring these stories to life.
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Watch the Chosen, season 1 and 2 are on Pure Flix, season 3 episode 6 plays Sunday evening at 6pm central time. I highly recommend watching the first two seasons and can also be found on The Chosen app which is completely free. This is the story of Jesus and his followers. Never before have I seen such a great movie or series on the life of Jesus.
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Mormon
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