Review of Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) by Quincytheodore — 15 Dec 2014

As boring as wandering in the desert for 40 years. Biblical epic is a double edge sword, its well-known tale might easily instill sense of marvel, but then again it is already well known. That means a movie with such original source not only needs to live up to the potential, it also has to produce a visualization of thousands years old scripture. Exodus: Gods and Kings does so little to said effects and frankly not enough to entertain, let alone awe the audience. Aside from the good visual and occasional short bursts of thrill, it's a long painstaking trudge through Moses' life.

The graphic is indeed great, it's one of the movies that did 3D right. Depth perception and setting are meticulously made, when they both work in tandem the scene is absolutely gorgeous. It does not, however, rely solely on CG. There's adequate atmosphere in play to create an organic ancient vista, dust and stone seem like everyday sight in the movie. This visual will grab interest, sadly for only first half an hour. Most of the movie's problem is the pacing. It's very slow and scenes play out stutteringly.

Editing is an issue as well, sometimes the movie pushes rather fast, but often dwell on the same matter. Motives and occurrences happen with thin reasoning, it is scripted by bible, but it could use much more explanation. Many times the story progresses merely by the willingness of the character to accept dubious development. It's never explained how Moses or Ramses come to decisions that will affect so many people, or how they convince them, for that matter. The movie is quite lengthy, but sadly it barely shows any vital interaction, and the characters are trapped in rigid single-minded behavior.

It tries to be relatable and display Moses' doubt, yet even this is lackluster. When someone is handpicked vaguely to be a prophet, one would imagine that said prophet would have intense discussion if given the opportunity, but here it feels like childish bickering. It never rises to the point of entertaining or inspiring like Ridley Scott did with Gladiator, not does it deliver some uplifting tone like Prince of Egypt. While breaking into song may be too cheesy, it at least possesses a joyous celebration.

Christian Bale does his best as Moses, but perhaps it's better for him to don a cape and start throwing batarang at Ramses.