Exodus: Gods and Kings Reviews

This is a well known story and I have also seen the '56 movie 'The Ten Commandments'. So in this film could not foresee the modification, but it did in a slight manner like the later 'Noah' movie. The best part was the visuals, the graphics were so good, hard to resist the pleasure if you are vfx geek like me. That's the reason I love modern movie, especially remake of a classic like 'King Kong'. The problem in this flick was lie in the story telling.

As we know, Ridley Scott is an excellent narrator, but this movie was too short even though it ran 150 minutes. I felt it was just a brief, I mean there were no details or depth in the important scenes. You will know what I'm saying if you had watched '56 movie I mentioned in a above paragraph. That's drawback for the first timers at a same time advantage for not to fall in boredom for those who have already seen other versions. Christian Bale, awesome; Joel Edgerton, good; Ben Kingsley, never required; Aaron Paul, totally waste.

Overall, not cleverly stablised in the scenes that are very important, especially the final one about ten commandments should have been extended a little bit with a moral message. If it was a Peter Jackson movie, definitely it would have been a trilogy with an aggregated time of over 500 minutes. This movie was an entertainer like I enjoyed it than the message deliverer. Must be watched for the amusement and for the pleasure in updating technical aspect of the narration rather than inspiration.

7.5/10

As usual, with Ridley Scott, I was really eager to check this movie but, to be honest, it was again really disappointing. In fact, I have actually missed 'The Counselor' last year but, apparently, it was one of the worst movies released in 2013 (with such an impressive cast, it seems rather hard to believe) so it didn't really miss much apparently. The issue with Ridley Scott, in my opinion, is that, ever since 'Gladiator' was a huge success, he has been making just way too many movies since then (11 in the last 14 years and he has already something coming up next year...). This movie is a perfect example. Indeed, as usual with this director, it really looked good and I thought that Christian Bale gave a solid performance but it was such a by-the-number adaptation of the Exodus, it was just quite underwhelming. The only original thing was to portray God or his messenger as a child but it seemed rather chosen at random and it didn’t have much impact. This year, Darren Aronosfky released his own biblical epic 'Noah' and even though it didn't get much love, it was much more daring and therefore much more rewarding than this snooze party. To conclude, I think I'm being rather generous with my rating here, but like everything directed by Ridley Scott, I still think it is worth a look but don’t expect anything really amazing before watching this.

While the movie is visually impressive, the screenplay is a mess and the characters are cold, distant and artificial. Portraying God as a 11-year-old child was definitely not a good idea either. Christian Bale may be a wonderful actor but is just not convincing as Moses, not because he couldn't be convincing, but because the dramatically icy screenplay doesn't let him show his best qualities.

Scenes that could have been remarkable, such as God's speech when He tells Moses about the 10 commandments, are portrayed as a 30-second-scene right in the end of the movie, with no context and no emotion. It is obvious that any Christian (and also non-Christians) who has watched the movie was expecting a more emotionally touching scene regarding the 10 commandments, but it seems like the movie's goal was to make actors wear extra amounts of eyeliner.

It made me remind of Alexander, which had many mistakes including a blonde Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie as his almost-his-age looking mother. Both movies were not quite historically (Biblically, when it comes to Exodus) accurate , had amazing special effects, total lack of emotion... and were a waste of money and time.

So last year Ridley Scott did that horrible movie The Counselor which was highly disappointing. I think he redeemed himself with this epic biblical story. The acting was excellent except for a few of the smaller roles. There were quite a few cast members who had roles in Game of Thrones as well which I think is Awesome. Of course there will be complaints that the actors don't match for the location. Hollywood wants money and recognizable faces are what makes that happen. To be honest I think they all did wonderful despite their races. I think there were little hints of humor in a few scenes albeit a little dark. This was rated PG-13, but some of the thematic elements and visuals made me think of a low R. That being said it definitely should be watched with parents. This was quite visually remarkable. I'm sure Ridley Scott took a few liberties with the story to spice it up for a larger audience. The plagues were relentless and brutal which is how they should be. Exodus isn't a pleasant story, but it's one that is quite important if you are interested in the Word of God. I liked that he dedicated this to his brother Tony Scott.