Rent Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Outdated, Outmoded and simply why bother? - Exodus: Gods and Kings review by CS

What to say about a film which tries so desperately hard to reproduce the grandeur of 50's & 60's Biblical Epics, but fails so miserably! Everyone else on here seems to have said it already, this feels like they are trying to do a modern take on the Biblical Story by injecting lots of modern scientific explanations into the script, such as the theories of tidal waves or rising sea levels, the effects of famine, disease and so on. It is generally acknowledged by most that religious texts are nothing more than myth, legend, how people explained natural events in the past, but this film tries so hard to follow the mythical biblical story, whilst bringing the ideas up to date, that I can't workout if the directors making fun of science, or religion itself? God shown in the form of a young boy simply comes across as an arrogant child having tantrums and unleashing horror upon the world as a result. As Pharaoh says, "What God kills all the Children?", to which Moses replies, "No Hebrew Children Died"! For me this says it all, this is a story of cruelty, barbarism and persecution, committed by the Hebrew God against the Egyptians, whether this twist is intentional or not I'm unsure? The promised land of Canaan is mentioned and someone points out that it is already inhabited, what they don't mention is that in the Old Testament, the Hebrews commit genocide and wipe out the Caananites, in order to steal this promised land! There are so many obvious plot holes, continuity errors and simple mistakes, such as when the Red Sea drains, there is not a bit of seaweed, dead fish or any other form of aquatic life, just sand and a few rocks. They climb out onto a hill next to the sea, but next shot shows them all basking on a golden sandy beach and when the sea starts to drain, it's so obvious that they are all standing in a river flowing one way! At nearly three hours in length, I found this a very long, drawn out affair, slow to develop, an awful script, lots of historical errors, standing next to the Sphinx for example with no pyramids or builders village nearby, which exist right next to it in reality, but seem to have disappeared for this film. We know today that the myth of slavery in Egypt was probably just that to an extent and that lots of the builders were actually paid artisans, so it's difficult to carry such an old fashioned concept nowadays with what we actually know, compared to the myth, so perhaps you are going to make a film based upon Myth, it should be just that, because in this case the two simply don't mix!

So-so CGI-infused biblical epic - Exodus: Gods and Kings review by PV

This movie is a bit long and perhaps too reliant on CGI - the list of hundreds of names of digital artists at the end are a sign of just how much of this is create in a computer.

All in all, it's a bigged up version of the bible, which takes liberties and dramatic licence, but why not (the old testament is hardly a documentary!).

There are some fun parts - and in the tale of friends/brothers who fall out it aims to mirror Gladiator and Ben Hur etc I suppose.

The plagues are done well - you can have fun trying to guess what's next.

Most stupid scenes involve the pharaoh's advisor trying to explain the plagues by logic. For some reason, he has a strong Scottish accent! The other accents used are neutral, maybe mid-Atlantic. So why the SNP accent half-way through? Very odd. I was glad when he met his fate...

I do not have an issue with the race of the actors - ancient Egypt, after all, was populated by north Africans (not those with negroid features). The pharaohs were NOT black like Kanye West, no matter what certain race consciousness groups in the USA claim.

So all in all, worth a watch. But not a patch on Gladiator.

Ridley Scott is 75 years old though...so maybe time to pass the baton?

Despite the pedigree of talent here, this was never anything more than mediocre for me - Exodus: Gods and Kings review by TB

Unfortunately, this is one of Ridley Scott's less good films. All the right components are here, but this is a very long film with some interjections of spectacular action to move the plot along, stunning cinematography as always from Dariusz Wolski and competent direction. This is a film which strains for epic but unfortunately never gets above mediocre.

Something that I once heard Mark Kermode say about Ridley Scott is "Scott seems to be only as good as the script he's working from." This is one of those films. As much as there is potential there for a great film, like with Noah, it just didn't grab me.

Finally, apparently there was some blowback from people who were religious and disagreed with the way the story was told. I am an atheist, so don't care about the religious themes in this film. If a film is good, it's good. And sadly this one wasn't that great.

Big film - Exodus: Gods and Kings review by NC

Still remember Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. Some early special effects parting the Red Sea look a bit obvious today, but epic film in its day.

Bale has a different angle, but not too bad for a Bronx version of the Bible. Is fairly epic...........