Sgt_Gath
Diamond Member
- Jul 25, 2014
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Exodus: Gods and Kings
Long story short, The Prince of Egypt was better.
More seriously, however, this was a pretty good movie. It just wasn't "great," per se.
The Good:
1. The film is absolutely gorgeous.
2. The plot is, more or less, in keeping with the Biblical tradition (unlike Noah).
3. The film does a fairly good job making the the story relatable to modern audiences. Moses and Ramses are both cast as prideful, but relatively down to Earth skeptics with believable human flaws. The miracles the plagues represent are also kept relatively low key, while still being terrifying and unexplanable.
4. The movie does a good job of making the morality of the story relatable to modern sensibilities as well. Ultimately, God visits no punishment upon the Egyptians which they had not first visited upon the Hebrews, but worse. Moses is also shown to not be comfortable with the amount of suffering the plagues cause, but it is a matter that is out of his hands.
5. The acting is good, especially with regard to the two leads.
The Bad:
1. The pacing is a bit gimpy at certain points, and the plot probably could have been streamlined quite a bit to save time.
2. A few of the miracles probably could have stood to be a bit more awe-inspiring. Again, the Prince of Egypt handled this better, IMO.
3. Having Moses spend 20 minutes of the movie playing "insurgent" against Pharaoh was pointless, didn't go anywhere, and just slowed everything down.
4. The climax had me rolling my eyes so hard that they just about popped out of my head.
Stylistic / Your Mileage May Vary:
1. The level of "white washing" in this film was, in my opinion, anyway, a bit ridiculous. Half the Egyptian characters had blue eyes, for God's sakes.
This was especially odd considering the fact that they seemed to have taken care to cast Middle Eastern (or, at the very least, Semitic) looking actors to play most of the Jewish characters. They also basically went deliberately out of their way to make the Hittites look like a bunch of swarthy, greasy barbarians, when, technically speaking, they probably should have been quite a bit more "European" looking than anyone on the main cast.
Also, they really couldn't have gotten a Jewish actor to play Moses?
Don't get me wrong, Bale was fine. However, I can think of a number of other actors who could have passed for Jewish quite a bit more easily than the extremely Northern European looking Christian Bale. Take Eric Bana in Munich, for instance.
It was simply a bit jarring given how Middle Eastern every other "Jewish" character seemed to look.
2. Ummm... How in the Hell do you have a movie about Ancient Egypt without a single Khopesh anywhere to be seen?
And why does Moses spend basically the entire movie running around in a Roman tunic, where everyone else is shirtless?
3. For all the big name actors in this movie (Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Aaron Paul, etca), they really aren't given a whole lot to do.
Maybe they have bigger roles in the Director's Cut?
4. Having God be played by a 10 year old boy was strange, to say the least.
Overall:
7.5 out of 10
Long story short, The Prince of Egypt was better.
More seriously, however, this was a pretty good movie. It just wasn't "great," per se.
The Good:
1. The film is absolutely gorgeous.
2. The plot is, more or less, in keeping with the Biblical tradition (unlike Noah).
3. The film does a fairly good job making the the story relatable to modern audiences. Moses and Ramses are both cast as prideful, but relatively down to Earth skeptics with believable human flaws. The miracles the plagues represent are also kept relatively low key, while still being terrifying and unexplanable.
4. The movie does a good job of making the morality of the story relatable to modern sensibilities as well. Ultimately, God visits no punishment upon the Egyptians which they had not first visited upon the Hebrews, but worse. Moses is also shown to not be comfortable with the amount of suffering the plagues cause, but it is a matter that is out of his hands.
5. The acting is good, especially with regard to the two leads.
The Bad:
1. The pacing is a bit gimpy at certain points, and the plot probably could have been streamlined quite a bit to save time.
2. A few of the miracles probably could have stood to be a bit more awe-inspiring. Again, the Prince of Egypt handled this better, IMO.
3. Having Moses spend 20 minutes of the movie playing "insurgent" against Pharaoh was pointless, didn't go anywhere, and just slowed everything down.
4. The climax had me rolling my eyes so hard that they just about popped out of my head.
Stylistic / Your Mileage May Vary:
1. The level of "white washing" in this film was, in my opinion, anyway, a bit ridiculous. Half the Egyptian characters had blue eyes, for God's sakes.
This was especially odd considering the fact that they seemed to have taken care to cast Middle Eastern (or, at the very least, Semitic) looking actors to play most of the Jewish characters. They also basically went deliberately out of their way to make the Hittites look like a bunch of swarthy, greasy barbarians, when, technically speaking, they probably should have been quite a bit more "European" looking than anyone on the main cast.
Also, they really couldn't have gotten a Jewish actor to play Moses?
Don't get me wrong, Bale was fine. However, I can think of a number of other actors who could have passed for Jewish quite a bit more easily than the extremely Northern European looking Christian Bale. Take Eric Bana in Munich, for instance.
It was simply a bit jarring given how Middle Eastern every other "Jewish" character seemed to look.
2. Ummm... How in the Hell do you have a movie about Ancient Egypt without a single Khopesh anywhere to be seen?
And why does Moses spend basically the entire movie running around in a Roman tunic, where everyone else is shirtless?
3. For all the big name actors in this movie (Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Aaron Paul, etca), they really aren't given a whole lot to do.
Maybe they have bigger roles in the Director's Cut?
4. Having God be played by a 10 year old boy was strange, to say the least.
Overall:
7.5 out of 10
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I had to sit and watch to figure out whether it was supposed to be serious or a comedy.
