Movie Review – Exodus: Gods and Kings

The classic tale about the Hebrew’s exodus from Egypt, led by Moses and Aaron (or in this case, just Moses), has been adapted for the screen on many remarkable occasions. Most notably are Cecil DeMille’s The Ten Commandments and DreamWork’s The Prince of Egypt. In this tale, director Ridley Scott and his team of writers give us a fresh and dare I say, different approach to the Biblical tale.

I understand that many Christians, Catholics, and other Hebrew-based religious groups were offended by Darren Aronofsky’s version of Noah; where they were expecting a bible-school-like version of the tale they grew up with. On the other side, there were activists complaining about the film’s white-washing, only looking at the actor’s skin color and forgetting about the rest of the movie. Expressing that frustration with reviews about how the movie “sucked” because it wasn’t “accurate” gave us a long list of reviews that criticized the film based on their Bible school expectations of the story, and not based on the film itself. For that reason, I’ve decided to watch and review Exodus before reading other reviews on the film. So, let’s start:

The movie opens up introducing our main characters: Moses and his cousin Ramesses (Ramses) II, as they charge their armies into a battle with the Hittite people. We are immediately drawn into the action and amazing visuals and effects, as well as into the main plot of the film (which starts with a prophecy told by one of the Pharaoh’s mystics).

While the action of the film was great, this two-and-a-half hour long epic does tend to get slow in various occasions; adding details, development and screen time to characters that aren’t important to the film’s plot, while leaving other, maybe important characters (such as Aaron and Joshua) without any development or insight.

In regards to casting, while I loved their selection of Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton for the lead roles, I feel that Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley’s characters did not get enough screen time or importance in the film, especially when trying to establish Weaver as the antagonist before Ramesses for the first part of the film, and Kingsley as the high elder of the Hebrew people. An extra scene or two starring those characters would’ve done the film justice (and could be a good reason to eliminate other unimportant slow scenes).

As I’ve mentioned, the visuals are amazing, and you will be wowed by the plagues and the Red Sea scene. Also the suspense is good, although a bit shadowed if you already know the story. My advice: If you haven’t read the Book of Exodus (written by none other than Moses himself), then watch this movie first so that you can enjoy it for what it is: a movie.

Side Note: Being a theology fan and a history lover, I will write another post about Exodus from a Christian, Biblical and Historical perspective soon.