Review of Gods of Egypt (2016) by Harry W — 02 Nov 2016

Despite the large amount of controversy it gathered for Hollywood whitewashing, with Gods of Egypt holding Alex Proyas as the director I had hopes for some sort of entertaining action experience.

Attempting to resurrect the success of Zack Snyder's 300 (2006) through casting Gerard Butler in a tale of mythological combat while aiming for the scale of Game of Thrones (2011-present) through its political story points and fantasy elements, Gods of Egypt is one of the most expensive sword and sorcery films to have graced the cinematic screen in a long time. I fondly remember director Alex Proyas for having directed The Crow (1994) and Dark City (1998). However, it's also important to keep in mind that he directed the Nicolas Cage Catastrophe Knowing (2009). It appears that a key difference with each of these films is that Alex Proyas can make a more enjoyable experience when working on a lower budget while larger financing means a more overblown and senseless feature. Gods of Egypt is certainly an overblown film, but it is not an incompetent waste like Knowing was.

The last big-budget sword and sorcery film to make any kind of major impact was Brett Ratner's Hercules (2014) which succeeded because it lived up to the generic contract of a collaboration between the director and star Dwayne Johnson. It was generic but it was a fun action experience with enough satisfactory visuals to entertain a young crowd, and it consistently remained focused on this rather than messing around with its story. Gods of Egypt doesn't see eye-to-eye with this notion. While it focuses primarily on spectacle as it should, any time there is actual dialogue being used in Gods of Egypt it takes a rather tedious path. I didn't go into Gods of Egypt with any expectations that it would have a magnificent story. Given that it is a sword and sorcery film with a heavy focus on fantasy elements, the idea that it would maintain fidelity to Egyptian mythology is ridiculous. The film is structured with cliche points of character drama and predictable plot twists as a means of driving the narrative forward, forgetting that audiences of such a film would only care about what is happening and not so much why it is happening. And trying to keep up with everything is rather arbitrary since the experience gets convoluted due to its overblown scale, particularly when the feature insists on maintaining this for a running time of beyond two hours.

When the story actually takes off it becomes a series of vignettes with different depictions of special effects. The film is segmented into a series of different mythological creatures and battles making appearances. Audiences expecting to enjoy the film are likely to have forgotten about the film in favour of its visuals. I found myself annoyed by the story, but I could not look away from the magnificent visual experience that Alex Proyas put together. The universe in Gods of Egypt is built out of some of the greatest visual effects that money can buy, as well as some nice scenery and production design. There are several moments where the CGI universe is somewhat obvious or rather heavy, but the entire experience is visually stunning. The Egyptian fantasy universe is built upon a magnificent eye for imagery which uses remarkable detail, and it is bolstered all the more by the powerful cinematography and heavily mediated use of editing and slow motion. Gods of Egypt is an overblown film but its visuals are unforgettable, and they give the film some powerful action scenes. There are even moments of entertaining sword fighting that rely more on actual skilled choreography than anything else, even though they are fairly sporadic throughout the film. With this in mind, Gods of Egypt succeeds in achieving its gigantic scale with visual glory and carries a powerful musical score to support it along the way.

Alas, as writing is no strong point in Gods of Egypt the cast do not reach any high level of achievement.

Brenton Thwaites makes a fairly standard protagonist. He has no real identity to him aside from the fact that he is the standard male protagonist on a quest for love and adventure. He may look enough like Jon Snow to satisfy Game of Thrones fans, but since he isn't an interesting character it's only his physical capabilities that provide anything to the film. Luckily enough the actor has enough athleticism to succeed in this area. Brenton Thwaites does the routine job he is cast to do in Gods of Egypt, but he doesn't provide anything compelling along the way.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau maintains the Game of Thrones element of Gods of Egypt due to his role as Jaime Lannister in the television series. We've seen what the actor is capable of doing when presented with the right character, but Horus is no such character. However, it is always glorious to see the man thrust into battle. The script offers the actors no challenge, but his dedication to the mood of the film shows him engaging with the universe of the story very well. He takes the material very seriously and puts up a hell of a fight when thrust into combat, so he makes a convincing effort. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau transfers his skills seamlessly into Gods of Egypt, proving to be one of the better cast members.

Gerard Butler however proves far more pretentious. One could argue that Gerard Butler is appropriately cast due to his legacy for portraying Leonidas in 300, but he is also a Scotsman. This makes him wrongfully suited for the part of an Egyptian deity due to a cultural mismatch. Not only does his presence make a reminder of whitewashing issues in Hollywood, but he also cannot conttain his accent at many times. When Gerard Butler tries to engage with the more intense moments of the story in Gods of Egypt, it becomes laughable that he cannot decide which accent he wants to stick to. Fans of his should certainly find satisfaction in seeing him return to sword combat, but it's no boost of support to his credibility as an actor.

And Courtney Eaton is just annoying. She is clearly cast because the film needs a pretty female to be the romantic interest. I won't deny that she is a gorgeous star, but she is no actress. So bereft of any actual emotion throughout the film, Courtney Eaton is annoying anytime she actually appears in a scene that demands actual drama. So when her character is killed off early on in the film, nobody cares. But even then, her death is the most pretentious death to have entered the realm of cinema since Mary Coreleone got shot at the end of The Godfather Part III (1990). Any actress who reminds a viewer of a performance by Sofia Coppola is one who needs to check their abilities.

However, Geoffrey Rush makes a strong presence. His role in the film is small, but due to the actor's inherent sense of wisdom in his line delivery he brings a very Shakespearian feeling to his effort.

Gods of Egypt has an overlong and convoluted narrative which relies on lacklustre mythology, cliche plot points and one-dimensional characters to make it compelling, but as a spectacle of action and visual effects it is a satisfactory guilty pleasure.