Review: Ridley Scott's 'Exodus: Gods and Kings' starring Christian Bale

This year has been one of the strongest for faith-based movies, at least at the box office, anyway. The biggest turned out to be the one film that dared to bring a little something fresh to a well-worn Biblical tale, and that was Darren Aronofsky's superhero-ish Noah. Whether you smelled what Aronofsky was cooking on that one, after enduring Ridley Scott's dull, badly cast CGI monstrosity Exodus: Gods and Kings you'll be wishing he had been similarly inspired.

A lot has been made of the ridiculous casting already so why bother making fun of it further? Movies aren't made in a vacuum; Ridley Scott has been around long enough to know that, and to fall back on the silly casting practices of old Hollywood is inexcusable. So you want a film set in ancient Egypt full of a bunch of Brits and Aussies? Then this is the movie for you. It would be one thing if the acting was good enough that their ethnicities didn't matter but that's not the case. And Scott has fallen into the trap of relying too much on the "pop" of technical wizardry to develop much of a human drama out of Moses' inspiring story of unshakable faith.

Christian Bale brings his typical intensity to the role of Moses, and his story is one even us heathens know by heart. Adopted son of the current Egyptian Pharaoh (John Turturro, caked in makeup like everybody else) and brother to the future ruler Rhamses (Joel Edgerton), Moses serves loyally until it’s discovered he’s actually Hebrew. The Hebrew slaves (including Ben Kingsley and Aaron Paul, sadly underused) know the truth, but Moses is unwilling to accept it until his hand is forced. Rhamses, suffering a twinge of jealousy at the bond between Moses and his father, sees it as a chance to banish him from the kingdom. Exiled, Moses begins a family and is happy until he starts being visited by God, who is apparently a really angry little child. When an angry God-boy tells you to embrace your heritage and free the Hebrew slaves, you do it.

The problem, one of many, is that the middle section of the film sees Moses watching from the sidelines as God unleashes his terrible plagues. Scott seems especially enamored of this section because it gives him a chance to fill the screen with CGI locusts, flies, and toads. At this point in his career Scott has given in to the "more is better" way of filmmaking, and as such every one of his epics looks the same. Gladiator resembles Robin Hood which resembles Exodus. What happened to the guy who was able to build personal human dramas within large-scale blockbusters? It's hard to get a read on this version of Moses. He isn't particularly humble, nor does he seem all that dedicated to God's cause. The best scenes of the film are the unintentionally funny conversations he has with a very petulant God, who just wants to rain down death and destruction. The plagues are depicted in all of their horrific glory, but they're still pretty bland visually. Chariot and horse battles have the widescreen appeal we'd expect from Scott but they're hardly up to his past standard.

That's not to say there aren't some good ideas here and there. The first half of the film is hardly spiritual at all, grounding Moses' story in a dedication to family. But this idea is never fully realized and is completely lost to the fantastical, so that Moses remains a man we never completely understand. Perhaps there was a better movie left on the cutting room floor somewhere. So many screenwriters got their hands on the script something was bound to be lost in the process. Unfortunately, what seems to have disappeared is anything to justify watching Exodus: Gods and Kings when popping in a DVD of The Ten Commandments would be more fulfilling.

 Rating: 2 out of 5