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Exodus Gods and Kings is, of course, the story of Moses and how he lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Now, I was very excited for this movie. I really like the story of Moses and to see Ridley Scott be making it with Christian Bale was kind of a big deal to me. So, was I disappointed with this movie? In some ways yes, and in some ways no.
One good thing about Exodus is the acting. Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton are great and have good chemistry. When they meet back up after Moses is exiled it's great, and you can really see the tension between them. They have great chemistry together and I enjoyed seeing them on screen. Exodus also has a plethora of other famous actors, like John Tuturro, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver and Aaron Paul. Normally, having an all star cast is good, but in this case it isn't. The reason I'm saying this is because all the parts that these other great actors are playing are extremely boring. For example: All that you see Aaron Paul's character do in the movie is stare wide eyed at Moses and say a couple words here and there, and Sigourney Weaver is maybe in the movie for 3 minutes. It's a shame that all these great actors were wasted with these minor and boring parts. You see, the only truly fleshed out and interesting characters in this movie are Ramses and Moses.
I'm going to talk a little bit about the story, but not too much, I don't want to give too much away (although I'm guessing you already know the story). The movie does some really different and interesting things with the Moses story. Some of these things are good, and some are bad. The plague scenes were really satisfying and grandiose, and that's a huge plus for this movie. Also the red sea scene at the end was really thrilling and different. Some things I didn't like about the story was that there's a huge 9 year gap in the movie. Moses goes off to get married and Ramses is the king and then we just skip 9 years. It's kind of annoying because before we see the black screen with "9 years later" written on it the characters are one way and after we see the "9 years later" the characters are different. It's a lazy way to show character change. Another thing that was slightly annoying was the way the characters talked. They talk like people today basically, and it kind of takes you out of the moment at times. The dialogue is kind of choppy and sub-par at times, and there were a lot of things taken out of the Moses story that was important. It felt like they just wanted to get to certain scenes at times, and threw out anything that was getting in the way of those scenes. This was a true disappointment to me to see so many scenes cut out.
The visuals are really great in Exodus. The CGI is really well done as well as the battle scenes. The camerawork is pretty good in this too. I didn't like the frantic camerawork in the first battle scene, but after that it got a lot better.
The music is a huge plus for Exodus. The soaring score fits the film well. I don't know how else to put it. The music works.
Overall, I liked Exodus. I had a good time seeing it and while it does have some big problems that are hard to overlook, I don't regret seeing it. It has some refreshing additions to the Moses story, and some aggravating things taken out of the Moses story. But if you like big action sequences and the Moses story, chances are that you'll like Exodus Gods and Kings.
Exodus Gods and Kings is, of course, the story of Moses and how he lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Now, I was very excited for this movie. I really like the story of Moses and to see Ridley Scott be making it with Christian Bale was kind of a big deal to me. So, was I disappointed with this movie? In some ways yes, and in some ways no.
One good thing about Exodus is the acting. Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton are great and have good chemistry. When they meet back up after Moses is exiled it's great, and you can really see the tension between them. They have great chemistry together and I enjoyed seeing them on screen. Exodus also has a plethora of other famous actors, like John Tuturro, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver and Aaron Paul. Normally, having an all star cast is good, but in this case it isn't. The reason I'm saying this is because all the parts that these other great actors are playing are extremely boring. For example: All that you see Aaron Paul's character do in the movie is stare wide eyed at Moses and say a couple words here and there, and Sigourney Weaver is maybe in the movie for 3 minutes. It's a shame that all these great actors were wasted with these minor and boring parts. You see, the only truly fleshed out and interesting characters in this movie are Ramses and Moses.
I'm going to talk a little bit about the story, but not too much, I don't want to give too much away (although I'm guessing you already know the story). The movie does some really different and interesting things with the Moses story. Some of these things are good, and some are bad. The plague scenes were really satisfying and grandiose, and that's a huge plus for this movie. Also the red sea scene at the end was really thrilling and different. Some things I didn't like about the story was that there's a huge 9 year gap in the movie. Moses goes off to get married and Ramses is the king and then we just skip 9 years. It's kind of annoying because before we see the black screen with "9 years later" written on it the characters are one way and after we see the "9 years later" the characters are different. It's a lazy way to show character change. Another thing that was slightly annoying was the way the characters talked. They talk like people today basically, and it kind of takes you out of the moment at times. The dialogue is kind of choppy and sub-par at times, and there were a lot of things taken out of the Moses story that was important. It felt like they just wanted to get to certain scenes at times, and threw out anything that was getting in the way of those scenes. This was a true disappointment to me to see so many scenes cut out.
The visuals are really great in Exodus. The CGI is really well done as well as the battle scenes. The camerawork is pretty good in this too. I didn't like the frantic camerawork in the first battle scene, but after that it got a lot better.
The music is a huge plus for Exodus. The soaring score fits the film well. I don't know how else to put it. The music works.
Overall, I liked Exodus. I had a good time seeing it and while it does have some big problems that are hard to overlook, I don't regret seeing it. It has some refreshing additions to the Moses story, and some aggravating things taken out of the Moses story. But if you like big action sequences and the Moses story, chances are that you'll like Exodus Gods and Kings.