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exodus-gods-and-kings-review

Exodus: Gods and Kings Barely Stays Afloat

Script
5
Plot
5
Direction
5.5
Effects
9
Acting
7
Reader Rating2 Votes
7.1
The Good Stuff
Christian Bale
Egypt looked amazing
Could Be Better
Lack of depth between characters
General casting
Pacing
6.3

With great film chemistry between Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton, Exodus: Gods and Kings could have been a really captivating movie. However the movie fails to build on its strengths and is plagued by flaws of its own.

Exodus start with a bang. Immediately captivating your attention with a well-directed fight sequence–yup, Ridley Scott still has it– and an Egypt that the pharaohs would have been proud of.

Egypt was grand and detailed and the fight scenes in this movie will not let you down–I mean that’s the least i’d expect from a director who has some of the most iconic films under his belt–amazing CGI.

While the opening sequence was great and Egypt did look amazing, soon after that the pace slowed down far too much and the ball was completely dropped. And the worst part is that it kept dragging on and on and on. It almost made the movie too unbearable to watch. But it picked up pace again when the 10 plagues finally came on screen.

10 plagues–man were they gruesome, disgusting and at times terrifying. Scott did great again with all the special effects and CGI. Also, I liked how they used science to explain the plagues. It made it a bit more believable. The parting of the Red Sea and destruction of the cliff were also well done. Ridley Scott absolutely nails epic-ness in the head.

One question though–Why in the world was John Turtturo given the part of Pharaoh Seti I? I was on the brink of laughter. After seeing him play the whacky Simmons in Transformers I couldn’t help but not take this great actor seriously.

The you have Joel Edgerton who played king Rameses the Great but it felt like he was Rameses the obnoxious brat instead. I guess that might come down due to poor direction. Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver practically had only 2-3 lines of dialogue.

To me, the biggest let down was the lack of conflict between Moses and Ramesses. They are brothers who cared for one another, but there wasn’t any gripping storytelling to show the relationship being torn apart. The two only meet face to face twice after Moses’ return from exile. This gave the movie a feeling of emptiness and it personally made me feel the brotherly relationship didn’t mean anything to either of them.

Moses was portrayed well. Through him a connection could be made between the movie and audience. While Christian Bale did the role justice, God as a 8 year old child? Why? Are they trying to say that his actions were too childish?

While Exodus: Gods and Kings was a great story just waiting to be told (again) it just doesn’t quite deliver and might just be Ridley Scott’s worst movie to date.