My Review of Exodus: Gods and Kings · 12:23am Mar 2nd, 2022
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, everyone. This is Mr. J back with another movie review for tonight. This evening, I will be reviewing a live-action Bible movie entitled: Exodus: Gods and Kings from 2014. This is yet another movie which is based on the Exodus story from the Bible, and since I am a big fan of The Prince of Egypt since childhood, I figured I would give this movie a chance as it also contains nearly the same story and characters from Exodus. So after watching it for the first time......I was honestly disappointed with everything in it. Words cannot describe just how underwhelmed I was with this movie. This film has no heart, no soul, and no sense of consistency whatsoever.
This movie is about a young Egyptian prince named Moses who has fought wars alongside his brother Ramses for many years. After associating himself with the Israelites, however, it is revealed to him that he is of Hebrew origin which ultimately led him to cut ties with Egypt and become a shepherd in the land of Median. God calls Moses to deliver his people from slavery and to set an uprising against the Egyptians.
First off, the plot is completely shallow and dull. Not a single character besides Moses in this entire movie had any actual character development. In fact, I don’t recall any character getting a shining solo moment that makes them stand out from the rest. If they really wanted to portray the characters from the book of Exodus with that amount of liberty they had with this movie, they should have spent time in developing each character and fleshing them out with original dialogue. Not even Moses himself was that interesting. There was not a single moment in the film where his backstory was seen through a flashback; instead, we are simply told by a character that he was a Hebrew originally. That’s it. Remember, guys, SHOW, don’t tell!
Why would Moses believe a Nun that he was a Hebrew since birth? Why did Moses rashly murder two Egyptian guards who mistook him for a Hebrew slave whereas he could have showed his face to show them who he is? The script makes no sense.
Don’t get me started with this version of Ramses. He is the most underdeveloped character in the entire movie. The way he was portrayed gave me the impression that the writers didn’t know what the hell they wanted to do with his character and made him such a confused ignoramus with no emotion at all. Joel Edgerton’s performance as Ramses didn’t make it any better either. He looked like he didn’t want to be part of this mess and appeared to be absent-minded during some of his scenes.
Speaking of which, the chemistry between Moses and Ramses was so poorly written that it didn’t make me feel bad for any of them during all the troubles they suffered through. Where’s the brotherly love? Where’s the emotion? There has to be something that makes me feel their pain like how The Prince of Egypt managed to accomplish.
One of the things that somewhat confused me was how God was physically portrayed in the movie. During his first scene, he appears as a boy to Moses when the latter was completely covered with mud while there is a burning bush behind them. What the hell is the point of having a burning bush if God is going to talk to Moses in person? Because doesn’t the Bible say that God speaks to Moses from the burning bush? And why would God appear in a child form? Is there any mention of a child version of God in the Bible (specifically in the Old Testament)? I’m genuinely curious. Also, why is Moses covered in mud while God is speaking to him? What was the reason behind that?
Lastly, the most disappointing part of this movie was the part where Pharaoh and his army were chasing the Israelites through the Red Sea. Moses looked like he was about to actually fight Pharaoh in a one-one battle while half of his army fight Pharaoh’s army to the death in the middle of the sea. I was so interested to see how that would play out since no one has attempted to do that before in any other Bible movie or episode. But NO! Moses and his men immediately turn back and let God do all the work in destroying the Egyptians. WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT?! Stop jerking us around, movie! The filmmakers had so much liberty in inserting a lot of scenes that the Bible doesn’t even talk about in the book of Exodus, and they somehow pussy out and decided to stick to the source material. No, it’s too late for that, you idiots! This movie is far from being faithful to the source material, so you have no reason to not do anything different for the final battle in the Red Sea!
The only positives I have for the movie is the impressive CGI, choreography, action, and the acting... well, from some of the actors who took their roles seriously. I enjoyed seeing John Turturro as Seti, Ben Kingsley as the Nun, and Christian Bale as Moses. If only Moses was a more compelling, well-written character in this version, I would have actually liked him.
Other than that, this movie is a gigantic pile of poorly written garbage. This gets a 3/10. For those of you who are Christians, you might want to skip this movie if you don’t want your faith and your intelligence to be insulted. The same goes to anyone else who isn’t religious. Gosh, this movie sucks so much.
Peace!
If anyone wants to see a legitimately good film adaptation of the Exodus story, I recommend watching either The Ten Commandments or The Prince of Egypt.
Both are a million times better than this dull and unfocused mess.
I haven't seen this movie, but I read about the many things regarding it yesterday, especially with how callously the director was straying from the actual book of Exodus. Seeing your review today has pretty much encouraged me to skip this obvious trash-heap.