Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) Reviews

• Darling! Moses is on the phone....

  ggallegosgroupuk2017-04-21

  What, in God's name, was this? Everything reeks of commercial operation without any real thought behind it. Of all the puzzling elements in this bizarre epic, the most inexplicable is Christian Bale as Moses. Not the choice of Christian Bale - commercial operation, remember - no, that I understand, what's inexplicable is his performance. We know now Christian Bale is a great actor. Great. The Fighter alone puts him right up there with some of the best of his generation so why then he's so bad, but so bad here. His Moses is absent. Not a moment of truth, not a moment of real connection. Was he a hostage, performing against his will? That's what I felt, that he didn't want to be there and that alone made me watch the whole film with disdain. What a disheartening experience. I give it a 2 and not a 1 out of respect for the crew, because their work is real and present on the screen.

• What's up with Hollywood?

  vividhkothari2014-12-05

  I have never written a review in IMDb. This is my first time. Why? Because the movie hasn't been released in USA yet, and I just watched in India. Seeing just 5 reviews, I wanted to give mine too. What's up with Hollywood? Other than spectacular visuals and 3-D, they don't seem to care enough about anything else. In Exodus, by the famed director Ridley Scott, he surpassed many elements in visual effects. I have never ever seen so detailed visuals of ancient buildings, slums of slaves, and huge ocean waves and what not. 3-D adds a lot of pleasure in viewing such effects. That's it! There is nothing more that I could appreciate. It feels very empty. No emotions at all. Acting by Christian Bale is quite alright, but it is nothing special. Some scenes are memorable. But the lack of good writing, script, and no contribution from other actors diminish the effect of Bale as well. It is hard to imagine the same guy directed Gladiator (I haven't seen Aliens and blade runner). But there is everything missing in Exodus that made Gladiator a hit. At many places, it is boring, even if the cinematography and visual effects are great. In the beginning, you would feel as if Ridley took you to the ancient Egyptian world, just because of the small details shown in the effects. However, any interest or so will end in next 10 minutes or so, when the story starts lacking. So, my question remains. What's up with Hollywood? Is this much technology and huge funding to such directors destroying the creativity. Why no body cares about character building and good script? At one level, it feels extremely sad that with this budget and this talent in technology, even a slight efforts and honesty towards script, story, and dialogue can take such movies to a masterpiece level. But...no! "We are going to earn a lot of money. You are going to enjoy watching the magnificent sequence of millions of frog jumping in ancient buildings. Call it even?" Really?

• Terrible Schlock

  Segarr2014-12-09

  I went into this film with an open mind. I have enjoyed Ridley Scott movies in the past, particularly Gladiator which is the same genre of film as this. Unfortunately, I was left feeling extremely disappointed. Although this is a classic, biblical story that most movie-goers are likely already familiar with, the film-makers have decided to pad this ancient tale with over-the-top action scenes, as well as one-note characters that feel more like cardboard cut-outs as opposed to actual human beings. The most shameful aspect of the film is the part that I was most looking forward to : The Actual Plague. While I was hoping to see harrowing images of Egypt being decimated in a genuinely frightening tale, we are instead bombarded with fake looking CGI that simply left me dry. The plague feels more like a computer montage than an actual scary event.Terrible script. Weak performances. An over-reliance on CGI instead of CHARACTERS and STORY! Overall, just a bad film. Didn't help that they chose big named actors instead of people that looked more like Ancient Egyptians. Pass.

• Exodus retold, an Epic's epic failure

  sagarika-ravulapati2014-12-11

  First, I have a question about the title itself, the movie clearly claims to be based out of the bible. So, who are the Gods here, isn't it one God who brought His people out of Egypt which the movie boasts about also? Has the director taken the words of Pharaoh too seriously when he says I am God? Let alone the title,as I walked into the theater late, I only saw Christian Bale saving some kingly dressed Egyptian. And the next thing I see the Egyptian man calls him Moses. Where is this coming from? Sure, Moses lived in the palace raised by the Pharaoh's daughter but when did he save Pharaoh's son in the war? Moses, the author of Exodus himself would have remembered to give himself that credit if he did that, wouldn't he? Well, the director tries to make a point about the 'valiant' Moses, But later you find it is little too much exaggeration of thought to give screen time of around 20 minutes to the whole act of Moses discovering about his nationality, when Bible just conveys that he already knew he is a Hebrew.Absolutely ridiculous thing is to use Ben Kingsley as Nun, who is the father of Joshua for the dramatic effect of letting the cat out of the bag that Moses is a Hebrew. All this successfully blurs the actual details of the character of Moses through the way he was raised. Truth about his nationality and race helped him choose the side and kill the Egyptian in the first instance he saw his people troubled. That is what truth does; it will aid you in judgment. The most disappointing scene in the movie has not yet come until you see a bush burning and a small boy saying that he is the I AM. I was looking forward to this entire dialog between God and Moses but apparently this Moses was sinking in mud hit by stones and he wakes up getting convinced by his wife that it is all in his head. Yeah, as this Moses doesn't go with a staff on to this mountain like the one guarding the sheep, also misses God's instruction to use staff to work wonders to convince his people. I know, now we just wait for him to get back to Egypt and set things in action, meet Aaron and negotiate with Pharaoh regarding the release of his people. But you will be shocked that this Moses is neither the one who stammers with tongue nor with his sword. He secretly ambushes Pharaoh in his palace and threatens him in the name of God.For whatever reasons, Moses here trains an army of handful of Israelite men the basics of archery, for what? to take down the entire Egyptian army? I doubt that! To deal with this adamant Moses, God says I will do my business, you can stop fighting, only to dampen the Moses's mighty spirit to save his own people. I can't believe they showed the plagues to have had fueled from the river full of crazy crocodiles eating 10 men!! Whatever the director thought of the original story of Aaron using his staff on the river to change it into blood, he came up with this idiotic picture in his head. And all the other plagues are the effect of this blood plague! Clearly there was no effort made while narrating this story to convey that Hebrew people are not being affected by the plagues. On top of it, Moses is telling God to fall in line with the story by saying that everyone is getting affected by these bloody plagues can you like stop? Thanks to the disobedient Moses, it helped the director not convey God's repeated messages to Pharaoh, warning him to leave Israelites from his country. Good God! Somehow, Moses cryptically warns Pharaoh that his son might die that night if he wouldn't let his people out of country by night. I couldn't stop wondering if it not for the actual Pharaoh, this Pharaoh would have listened if Moses just spoke the words as absolute God's word. By now, we should know what to expect from this Moses, but I was totally unmoved by his concern for lambs over the preparation for Passover. We see that the movie might end soon when Hebrew people start to leave Egypt with anticipation about the great Red sea scene. Another disappointment greets us there as well, no amount of joy is shown on the faces of people who have been slaves for 400 years once they got freedom, I am sure the director very well knows how America celebrates 4th of July! I think I need to let go of some more failures of Moses here and just come to the end, yeah there is no parting of the red sea! You will be aghast to discover the reason for water to recede, Moses flinging his sword into the water! Moses has absolutely no clue where he is going, no God to talk to him. Pharaoh hasn't lost the lead, follows him soon. Given the confused emotions of Moses about his love for his Pharaoh Brother putting him in turmoil, fighting his own personal battles he waits and waits to be drowned in the flood. Oh no, they didn't kill him and our hero comes out of the sea to the side where Hebrews are waiting. Now, who led who exactly! Sigh!! The onward journey began, and there comes the Mt Sinai, God called Moses to write 10 commandments, the futility of the movie became crystal clear as God serves him tea and asks him to write a commandment if he agrees on the validity of that particular command. In conclusion, it's a story told but the truth left untold!

• Christian humble?

  harrypaulson-1112014-12-26

  Let me say immediately. Visually, technically, this film is a wonder and for that alone it deserves to be seen but then. Oh brother. Christian Bale, one of my favorites among the post-De Niro crop, is cast as Moses, you know? Moses - the man chosen by God for his humbleness. Christian's Moses blazes with self confidence. The Godly horrors known as plagues are a cinematic jaw dropping experience but when it returns to the actual drama. Oh brother. How can it possibly be? When the great Ridley Scott made his Robin Hood (did you see it?)his star Russell Crowe went to a talk show to promote the movie and called the Erroll Flynn version, "crap" - You see? I think that's at the center of the problem.