Movielogr
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Directed by Ridley Scott
Twitter Facebook Google+Most recently watched by jeneot33, seanCduregger, CaptainBigTime, themarc, TheRealGigi
Overview
The defiant leader Moses rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 400,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues.
Rated PG-13 | Length 150 minutes
Actors
Christian Bale | Joel Edgerton | Ben Kingsley | John Turturro | Aaron Paul | Ben Mendelsohn | María Valverde | Sigourney Weaver | Hiam Abbass | Isaac Andrews | Indira Varma | Ewen Bremner | Golshifteh Farahani | Ghassan Massoud | Tara Fitzgerald | Dar Salim | Andrew Tarbet | Ken Bones | Hal Hewetson | Christopher Sciueref | Emun Elliott | Kevork Malikyan | Alejandro Naranjo | Philip Arditti | Giannina Facio | Anton Alexander | Jon Rod | Maykol Hernández | Aaron Neil | Nicholas Khan | Phil Perez | Jorge Suquet | Abhin Galeya | Anthony Rotsa | Ayoub El Hilali | Miquel García Borda | Fergaledgar | Pedro Alberto Galindo
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04/17/2015 | TV | Blu-ray | Rented | 7 stars |
| (Average) 7 stars |
Viewing Notes
Despite some goofy casting choices (John Turturro as an Egyptian king? Really?) this mostly worked for me especially from the point where Moses gets exiled on.
Visually, it’s a feast. The story is great Old Testament blood and guts mythology. This god is not benevolent and some truly terrible suffering is rained down (literally) on the Egyptians, which lends itself well to some great visual effects and cinematography.
Where is mostly falls down is in providing a connection between the audience and Moses’ motivations for doing what he does. You never get a very deep sense of why he feels compelled to lead the Hebrews or even why they would bother to follow him.
I feel like Bale did well with the material he had to work with, but I get the feeling there’s a better cut of the film we haven’t seen yet (but it sure didn’t make it onto the bare bones Blu-Ray from RedBox). However, given the theatrical release is already two and a half hours long I’m not sure it would be more compelling anyway.
One fun highlight was seeing Ewen Bremner show up in the role of Ramses’ advisor, providing logical explanations for each of the plagues. It’s a moment of levity in an otherwise mostly serious movie.
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