From acclaimed film director Ridley Scott, and bestselling author God (assisted by Adam Cooper, Tower Heist), comes the epic tale that nearly every English speaking child knows before they begin grade school – Exodus: Gods and Kings. This most recent biblically produced adaptation of the biblical story stars Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby) who are supported by John Turturro (as Seti), Sigourney Weaver (as Tuya), Ben Kingsley (as nun), and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad as Joshua).
Gladiator Exodus: Gods and Kings is the tale of two unrelated boys who grow up closely, treated like brothers and sheltered under the ruler of the known world. Distrust and contempt brew between the would-be brothers as their father openly favors the humble great warrior to succeed him over his own child who is impulsive and ill-tempered. After the ruler dies, the favored warrior is cast out into slavery while the new Caesar Pharaoh bankrupts the country on lavish construction and ceremonies. Ultimately, Maximus Moses earns the trust of his fellow slaves and through them overthrows his captors, earns his freedom, and somehow doesn’t cause the collapse of the society he leaves behind.
This movie will make gobs of money. It is the best film version of the story yet. But, neither of those facts mean that it is a good film (except for the part where God is played by a petulant child, which was kind of brilliant.). Set aside that Moses and Ramses The Great are magically white and ignore the fact that the film has no idea when to end (are we sure this wasn’t made by Spielberg?) As a film, it fails for fundamental reasons, it spends all its money on dazzling effects and all its time telling the tale of the exodus when it should have spent both its budget and time on telling the story of the exodus. The figures in the film never cross the line that would transform them into characters. They are. They do. But why? Why are they? Why did they?
So… The film basically begs us to compare it to Gladiator, so I will. By contrasting these films we can see more clearly why this film is a failure. In Gladiator, the two leading men have an understandable rivalry, we see clearly, and from far off, the impending clash between them because the film devotes tremendous effort into drawing us into the personal aspects of their conflict. In Exodus, one minute, they are killing together and saving one another’s life, then suddenly Moses is exiled and eternally hated. That’s it. It’s really that simple.
The film gives us all the CGI plagues we can handle, but none of the delicious backstabbing politics of the Egyptian court that explain the burden of being pharaoh. It also has none of the turmoil of having your hand forced to declare the boy raised as your brother to be your mortal enemy. Look, I get that this is “sacred scripture” blah blah blah, but still, why make the effort if you’re not going to put in the effort? As an audience, we deserve more than to pay to see the computer-animated version of the Old Testament. To put it more bluntly, the film doesn’t take the time to make me care about this story, so I didn’t.
Rating: The computer animated version of the Old Testament (4/10)
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