Review of Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) by Martin R — 22 Jun 2015

[6/23/15. Blu-Ray. Courtesy of Redbox].

Directed by Ridley Scott, 'EGK' uses its Hollywood creative license to re-imagine the story of Moses as told in the Bible's Book of Exodus. Starring Christian Bale as Moses ...stop right there, if you thought that such an acclaimed director would go to the trouble of casting actors who--oh, I don't know--bear any resemblance to the people of Ancient Egypt then you're gravely mistaken. The interesting about that is that EGK certainly goes out of its way to get its actors to look as not-white as possible, it's totally bizarre at times when some of them are applied make-up to the point that you wonder why they were cast at all. Granted, the creative license plays a role and one could argue that maybe nobody else was quite fit to take on such well-known roles. Until you watch the film and the performances are as dead as the children that God slaughters. Ben Kingsley is a great actor, and so is Sigourney Weaver [her make-up is probably the most awkward in the film], but neither of them get a genuine chance to shine. Actually none of the cast members do and I'm not sure why that is considering that GNK was directed by Scott. Honestly, the only compliments to be made about EGK is the fact that it was directed by Ridley Scott, who takes full advantage of his widescreen HD presentation to really showcase some incredible shots and visuals. The river of blood scene was spectacular and a true highlight; the color of the blood is so rich that a vampire could taste it. The film is a dud; there's no tragedy, tension, dialogue, or conflict that I cared about in this movie. Moses makes a speech at one point in the movie and it is so uninspiring that it's a big mystery why the Hebrews didn't just wait for Ramses to kill them. The climax where the Red Sea is divided is so dull that if Moses had died, nobody would be shocked enough to care, in fact, the only thing that was noteworthy about the climax was a few seconds of cool background shots. In the end, I'm not sure who the movie was meant to appeal to, certainly not me lol. Ironically, I do think that to call "Exodus: Gods and Kings" a Christian film is misleading because Scott does deviate from the traditional story at times with his visuals (and his visuals alone), which will probably alienate a part of that crowd who might have been expecting a straight-forward interpretation for the big screen. If you have "The Ten Commandments" then I see no reason to even bother with this one and if you have Dreamworks' "The Prince of Egypt" then I see no reason to bother with this one. One more thing: The Pyramids in Egypt weren't built by Hebrew or Jewish slaves. In fact, recent evidence seems to suggest that the pyramids weren't built by slaves at all but, rather, laborers. That's a historical fact. The story of Exodus is just that, a story. Credit is due where credit is due and Egyptian pyramids were built by Egyptians. But I will say this, the decision to portray God as a child is one that deserves applause because if he exists then he'd have to have the rowdy, incompetent, and impatient nature of a child throwing a tantrum. In conclusion, if I had to sum up the movie and the story--if we're to take it literally--then I'd go with this scene (see image below). The image is a screenshot of an interaction between Moses and Ramses. Ramses asks: "Is this your god? *holding dead baby* A killer of children? What kind of fanatics worship such a god?".