First Words
I wasn’t expecting to see a movie that just felt like it was full of animal killings and dead children. I knew a little about the story of Moses and Ramesses II but jeez. I personally don’t like seeing a whole bunch of animal killings in my movies but that wouldn’t be the only reason I wasn’t too fond of ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’.
Plot
Moses (Christian Bale) looks to lead thousands of Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and from under the harsh ruling of his “brother” Pharaoh Ramesses II (Joel Edgerton). I’m not too educated on religious matters so I’m going to keep this plot summary super short.
Yeah, I Liked That
Although the script was painfully weak (will get back to that later), Bale’s performance still managed to not be
completely hindered by it. During a few moments in the film, his performance alone was able to make an awkwardly paced movie (will get back to that later) easy to watch. Moses interactions with Malak, a child being used as a representation of God, was a highlight of a movie that didn’t have many. Also, I liked the idea of having a child basically playing God in the movie. Moses hit the nail on the head in the movie when responding to his wife, who questioned the idea that the child he saw was God, by basically saying how would she know if he was or not since she’s never seen him before.
The visuals used to create the 10 plagues were exceptional and made those moments my favorite parts of the movie. The scene where all the water became filled with blood thanks to some vicious alligators looked stunning and disturbing. Some of the scenes with the plagues made good use of what was otherwise unnecessary 3D. When the hail started coming down, it kind of seemed like there was hail in theater. When the flies and locusts started appearing everywhere, it kind of seemed like they were appearing all around me as well.
Yeah, I Didn’t Like That
As I quickly mentioned earlier, the script for the movie was pretty weak. The dialogue left me confused at points throughout the movie about what just happened or what was going on because the script was not successful at executing the story the filmmakers set out to tell. When the script is bad, it doesn’t help your cause when the pacing of the movie is just as flawed.
When you have a movie with a bad script and serious pacing issues, the good quality you were looking to create will almost be impossible to come by. I know they wanted to cover a lot of details from the story but they misfired at what details to expand on and what to cut short. Parts they should of spent more time on, they rushed through. Other parts where they could of eliminated them altogether or just briefly touch on, they let drag for too long. This especially becomes a big issue when the movie gets up to 2 and a half hours. Also, for a movie that was lacking on entertainment, it would of been nice to see some action replace some of the many slower moments. The parting and crossing of the Red Sea seemed like the perfect moment to have an epic spectacle but the potential exciting moment felt like it came and went because it was fairly forgettable.
Other than Bale, the acting wasn’t as strong as it should of been but that’s not all on the actors. Aaron Paul and Sigourney Weaver were wasted. Their characters were given the screen time to show off their talents but their characters weren’t given much to do so that made the amount of time they had pointless. Edgerton, on the other hand, had the time and moments to show off the talent he does have but just didn’t do it. It seemed as if his heart wasn’t in the movie and he was just going with the motions. I don’t blame him though because he probably realized some point during filming that doing this movie wasn’t the best idea. It happens Joel. We all make mistakes but I still got to add you to the list of reasons why the movie wasn’t good.
Last Words
‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ has a similar feel to, but is still better than, that garbage ‘Noah’ that came out earlier this year. So clearly that isn’t a good thing. This weak attempt at telling the Exodus story only makes me appreciate ‘The Prince of Egypt’ more. Comment below and let me know if your thoughts on the movie line up with mine.
RATING: Never See Again (I have to put an explanation for this one. I didn’t hate this movie. It was just between OK and not that good, if that makes sense, and I just don’t see it having any re-watching value. That’s mainly because of the running time and the content. This is probably why I should update my ratings scale.)
P.S. Once again here is my rating scale. There are four different levels. Below is each level in order from best to worse and what each one means.
Must Own = A movie that is so good that I must add it to my Blu-ray collection when it comes out.
Would Accept as a Gift = I enjoyed the movie but don’t necessarily have to buy it (especially if I don’t have the funds to) myself but I would take it if someone bought it for me.
Might Rent = A movie that if I have the urge to watch again then I’ll just rent it from somewhere or Netflix it.
Never See Again = Very simple. I don’t want to ever see this movie again.
(Photo Credit: http://godawa.com/movieblog/exodus-gods-kings-thank-god-aint-noah-please-not-king-david; 20th Century Fox 20th Century Fox/PR)
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