Exodus: Gods And Kings Movie Review (2014)

action, adventure, drama, movie review,

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Exodus: Gods and Kings is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Christian Bale as Moses and Joel Edgerton as Ramses. As you may expect it, it’s about the event that occur in the bible book of exodus, Moses and Ramses, their opposition towards each other, their relationship and of course the parting of the red sea and all the stuff that comes with that.
As a filmmaker I have tremendous respect for Ridley Scott, not only because he made some of the best science fiction movies ever made but he continues to this day to make tons of movies. Even if not all of them are great, he is pumping out films faster than most directors who are in their twenties.
His career is a bit of mixed bag. You can’t always quite know what to expect, and with Exodus: Gods and Kings I had the exact same remarks for the movie, it’s a bit of mixed bag. For one the opening battle sequence in this movie is spectacular, it’s beautifully filmed. Ridley Scott pulled no punches when it came to that. I would say everything from the beginning of the ten plagues to the end of red sea sequence is absolutely fantastic.
There’s just a lot in between that a little hard to get through. A lot of controversy surrounding this movie because a lot of cast are white guys and they’re playing Egyptians. I mean really? Joel Edgerton as Ramses?
That being said, I think Joel Edgerton is a great actor. I like him a lot. If you’re not convinced of Joel Edgerton’s talent, just check out Warrior (2011), he was absolutely brilliant in the movie and I think he’s a good actor. I just don’t think he’s the right actor to play Ramses.

Another adventure movie you might like : The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies (2014), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

Certain actors just stand out like John Turturro as Pharaoh. It actually felt like spoof movie the scenes he was in. I was try not to laugh. Don’t get me wrong, John Turturro is a great actor, but in Pharaoh’s make up, sitting there, giving order to Christian Bale? It was like a comedy.
It’s cool to see Sigourney Weaver back in Ridley Scott’s film but she has like two lines, so it’s like she’s not there. But there were some really good performances in this movie namely Ben Kingsley and Christian Bale. I thought Christian Bale was great as Moses. He added a lot of emotions to his character, you really felt his plight, you understood his strange position in life once he realizes about his youth, and the final scene at the red sea was so well done.
Ridley Scott really knows epic and he clearly still understand how to show an awesome battle scene, but there’s a very long sequence in between there, where Moses exiled, he meets a woman, he starts a family, and this entire sequence drag quite a bit because the conflict set up at the beginning of the movie between Ramses and Moses is non-existent because they’re separated from each other.
So clearly the movie is at its best and most fascinating when these two guys are butting heads. The stuff that happens in between that is a bit of a drag. There’s some strange choices in regards to portraying God and I don’t know, I didn’t really buy that.
So there are some really good performances in this movie, there are moments when the movie is epic and awesome, the entire film looks beautiful. Ridley Scott has not lost his touch as a visual filmmaker. The problem with this movie is the pacing and just too much happening. It’s two and a half hours long, should have been two hours.

Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Adam Cooper, Bill Collage
Stars: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver
Duration: 150 min