Exodus Gods and Kings

Review Written By: Adolph Vega

3D

This use of 3d is very inconsistent and for the vast majority of the movie it's not impressive or interesting to watch in 3d. The movie starts strong with good use of 3d prospective with 3d building pillars, and overall good use of 3D within the scenery. Some early action scenes look nice in 3D with projectiles and characters moving within the different planes of 3d. Sadly the 3D effect does not last, and after the initial 30-45 minutes the movie seems to totally forget about the 3d aspect. After some good early uses the 3d rarely becomes used and is limited to scenes with special effects. The 3d is sharp and bright when it's presented; sadly 70% of the movie’s 3d is absent or not noticeable. Overall I did like the 3d aspect when they used it, but it's presented in so few scenes I cannot recommend watching it in 3d at all.

Final Verdict: Terrible 3D

Movie

Before I start this review I must comment regarding a few very important issues regarding this film. First and foremost I have to comment that any criticism of this movie is not a criticism of the faith of Judaism. I have full respect and admiration for the Jewish people and their culture and beliefs and this critique of this movie is not a critique of the Holy Bible, Torah, or Old Testament in any way. Second of all I must comment that when books are converted to films several aspects are changed and altered, and that is a natural part of the movie making process. Third of all I must comment that I would not directly talk about how the scenes and events in this movie are connected to the Bible events regarding the accuracy and or inaccurate nature of the film compared to the religious texts. Fourth and finally I must mention that this movie review would not directly mention the 1956 film "The 10 Commandments" and I will not compare or contrast this movie to that movie. That being said the1956 classic is vastly superior to this movie in almost every way.

All that being said, it’s time to review this specific film. Exodus Gods and Kings begins with little pretext and throws you into the story. This story revolves around brotherly drama between Moses and Ramses, which dates back thousands of years ago. A series of events leads Moses being expelled from the city and starting a family. Moses than has a religious experience that drives him to help the Hebrews in Egypt. This movie takes many aspects from the religious texts but changes things slightly to fit their distinct narrative. I never want to spoil the story, but this story from the Bible is incredibly well known, so I’ll cover some key aspects but not the details within this movie. First I want to compliment the movie for being entertaining and successfully bringing this ancient time to life on screen. I must applaud the technical aspects of the movie, as the computer graphics are convincing and well implemented.I also must give the film credit for having great sets, costumes, and make-up that look authentic and fit the period and region. Sadly those technical aspects are the only positive aspects to this film. This movie fails in almost every other regard including characters, story telling and the pacing is all over the place. The old saying it's not what you say but it's how you say it best describes this film, because the fundamentals of the story are well done but overall nature of this film is poorly executed with many repugnant decisions made within this film. The first repugnant decision the filmmakers made is the pacing is the inconsistent; some pointless scenes seem to drag on while other important scenes are rushed. For example the first scene where Moses meets God seems very quick, but the scene with Moses during his honeymoon night is way too long and serves no purpose. Speaking of Moses’s marriage the wife character serves no purpose within this movie. Her screen time is less than 10% of the film, and her role easily should have been cut from the final film. Her later absence makes no logical sense in the storyline, and its odd to see her be introduced, get married to Moses and than quickly dismissed within the span of 10 minutes. Sadly her character is given zero time to be developed and she doesn’t even get the dignity of a simple montage of her apparent 10 year marriage. This is only the first of many storyline decisions that are not executed well. The film makes several decisions that I disagree with and the most repugnant decision is how they decided to visualize God on screen. This aspect might be considered a minor spoiler but I think this decision is so egregious that I must discuss it. The movie portrays God as a 9-year-old bratty little bald boy. I can sympathize with this decision, as they probably wanted the character of God within this movie to be something the audience can relate to, but they totally fail to make God a likeable character. It’s very strange that the movie has the gale to question the legitimacy of this God character existence. Several times the movie questions if this God character is more than just a delusion of Moses. What makes this aspect so distasteful is that so many events happening within this movie is beyond the grasp of humans, therefore having the movie constantly question if God exists or is a figment of Moses imagination is mind boggling in its idiocy because obviously the story could not advance if this was only a delusion, so why bother wasting screen time with this element. Many times this child God seems to have an attitude, or total contempt for Moses and have mini tantrums. The relationship between God and Moses within this movie is off-putting and they have no chemistry and is tedious at times to watch. Simply put the God representation within this movie is badly handled and annoying. Speaking of annoying characters I found the main character Moses played by Christian Bale to be completely annoying in a pathetic fashion. This character of Moses starts the film without faith and seems out of place within the family. This character aspect for Moses is fine for the beginning of the film, but he does not grow as a character even after his interactions with God. I was vastly disappointed that the character is not transformed in personality after interacting with God and is the same pathetic human being before and after. I found the character of Moses to be lacking of confidence, without any leadership skills or vision, and not likeable or inspirational. This character completely lacks the charisma and gravitas to be the protagonist of this movie, and I refuse to believe that anybody would follow this pathetic characters lead. The movie has another terrible main character with Moses’s brother Ramses. Many times the movie would mention how evil Ramses is/was, but the few times they attempt to show you how evil he is/was they are laughable. The movie shouldn’t tell you how a character is, they should show you with scenes and dialog and this film fails to develop Ramses as the antagonist. The movie totally glances over how horrible he was to the Hebrews and his kingdom as a whole. When Moses is upset to how the kingdom is governed by Ramses its fails to resonate because his brutality is only mentioned in passing and never clearly demonstrated. The few instances of public execution to showcase his evil nature, I found funny and not threating in any way. A few times within this movie I was lost because they failed to clearly dictate what was happening or why. The climax of the movie is the scene with the Hebrews and the Dead Sea. This scene is anticlimactic and lacks the cinematic impact it should have. One line that Moses says about the future of Hebrews is borderline offensive, not because its contents but the poor execution of the lines from the actor. The movie ends with scenes that are rushed, and the movie ends without any sense of conclusion but a cheap nod to the other stories of Moses within the Bible, that have no relation to the previous scenes and lack context in this movie. I wanted to enjoy this movie but as it progressed the movie kept making repugnant decisions with the storyline, characters and events that I could not forgive. Please avoid this movie at all costs, because this abomination on film is not worthy of your time.

Final Score: 2 / 10

Exodus Official Website

Listen the Podcast Review here

UPDATED 1/4/2015

My good friend Christin Richard joins me to Revisit my review of Exodus Gods and Kings. This review is filled with spoilers and we talk about this movie again and she gives more insight and her different opinion of the movie. Click the button below to hear it.

Listen to Revisited Podcast Review Here