Movie Review: Exodus: Gods and Kings

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgement: I am the LORD.

                                                    

                                                              - Exodus 12: 12

Year 2014 sees the return of biblical movies in Hollywood. Earlier in March, Hollywood released Noah, a movie based on the flood narratives from the book of Genesis. Noah generated mass controversy, especially among the religious community, because under artistic license, the director took the liberty to re-interpret the biblical story about the great flood (but personally, I thought Noah was a good movie. It was artistically creative, but it also hit all the main theological points stressed by original bible story).

Later on in the year, Hollywood released a second biblical movie, Son of God, a movie adaptation for the story of Jesus of Nazareth. The story in Son of God was very faithful to the Bible, and the movie was praised by the religious community. However, Son of God received generally negative reviews from critics in the wider world. Personally, I thought Son of God was an unimpressive movie. This is not because I don't like the story of Jesus, it is because the storytelling in Son of God was dull and uninteresting.

So I suppose the question is, why can't Hollywood just make a biblical movie that is both interesting, while remaining faithful to the source material?

One director attempts to answer this challenge, by making a movie adaptation for the biblical Exodus. This movie, is called Exodus: Gods and Kings. Its director, is Ridley Scott, a prolific director whose career is decorated with several award winning movies. The trailer for Exodus: Gods and Kings showcased visually impressive scenes, but is this THE biblical movie that we have all being waiting for?

I watched this movie last night, and I wish to share some of my opinions about this movie in a review. Hopefully, my movie review will provide some useful information, for those who are pondering if this movie will worth their time and money.

Synopsis:

1300 years before Jesus Christ walked the earth, the Hebrews lived as slaves in Egypt for 400 years. The Egyptian masters treated the Hebrews unfairly, and the Hebrews suffered. These Hebrew slaves did not forget God, neither has God forgotten them. God had a plan, and He would deliver his promise, to free the Hebrews from slavery and bring them to a land of milk and honey.

The Almighty’s rescue plan kicked into motion, when Moses, a prince of Egypt, discovered the secret behind his birth and origin. What's the secret? Moses was a Hebrew. Following this revelation, Moses was exiled from Egypt. In Moses' exile, God appeared to Moses, and chose him to be His messenger, charged him with a mission to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. But the Pharaoh, commanding the might of the Egyptian kingdom, wouldn't let the Hebrews go. The only hope for Moses and his people, was for their God to step in, and challenge the might of the Pharaoh.

Thus began a contest of power between a God and a king. In this contest, there can only be one victor.

What I think about this movie:

I have mixed feelings about Exodus: Gods and Kings. This movie has its moments of brilliance, but it also has elements which are bound to disappoint its audience. Let me start by sharing what I like about this movie.

First of all, this movie is a visual spectacle. The cinematography is impressive, the colors and contrasts of the pictures are beautiful to behold. Ridley Scott made excellent use of the 3D technology, to create breathtaking scenes with stunning depth (in 3D, this means the sense of depth “behind” the screen), and captivating display of “pop out” effect (in 3D, this means objects that appear to “come out” of the screen). If you are going to watch this movie in the cinema, then I will recommend that you spend a few extra dollars and watch this in 3D, it's worth it.

Secondly, while Ridley Scott did take the liberty, under the artistic license, to depict God as a child when he appeared to Moses (I will discuss this later), but in my opinion, from the plagues of Egypt, to the parting of the Red Sea, every story element from the biblical exodus is in this movie. This means Exodus: Gods and Kings, is largely faithful to the Bible. Furthermore, I also think this movie, unlike other, past Hollywood movies about Exodus, got the meaning and the message of the Exodus story correctly this time around. Allow me to explain.

In the past, Hollywood made 2 movies about the biblical exodus. The first one, is the 1954 classic called The Ten Commandments. The second movie, is a Disney animation called The Prince of Egypt. Both movies were very “Moses centred”. But a careful examination of the scripture does not, reveal the sense that the story was centred around Moses. Instead, the biblical exodus focused on the power contest between God and Pharaoh, where God ultimately proved to be the victor. Think about it, in the story of biblical exodus, it was God who brought the ten plagues upon Egypt, it was God, in a silent night, killed all firstborn (men and animals) in Egypt, making the Pharaoh relent. Finally, it was God who parted the Red Sea and provided the Hebrews with a way to escape. Moses didn't do any of that, it was all God and His plan.

In my opinion, In Exodus: Gods and Kings, this movie depicted the message of the scripture correctly. In this movie, Moses was portrayed as someone who was trying to do his best, but ultimately, he was just a man. So it was up to his God to bring the Pharaoh down to his knees, by inflicting Egypt with ten plagues, ending with a finishing blow where God killed every firstborn (man and beast) in Egypt. Here I must say, Ridley Scott depicted the ten plagues with such trauma and impact, and the audience gets the sense that the story of exodus (if true) is meant to be violent and disturbing, emphasizing the message from the original text: When it comes to God (if such an entity exists), it's better to be with Him than against Him.

This brings on the discussion about Ridley Scott's choice, of depicting God's appearance to Moses, in the form of a child surrounded by an aura of vengeance. Personally, I think this is the most interesting and brilliant part of the entire film. The depiction of God having a vengeful persona, definitely fits the descriptions and the personality of God in the Old Testament (by the way, the scene with the burning bush is also in this movie). Meanwhile, in this movie, Moses struggled to come to term with God's decisions to punish every Egyptian (including his former friends and families), while it was the Pharaoh who refused to relent. I think by portraying Moses this way, Ridley Scott build a link, where modern audience can draw on their own experience from reading the Old Testament and then resonate with Moses' experience (especially the parts where God commanded genocide and rapine, and setting up several divine laws which are, incomprehensible, when examined under our 21^th century morality).

 I really like how Ridley Scott depicted God and Moses, and their relationship. There is an unmarked, but sincere honesty about it (i.e. instead of mind boggling religious apologetics, it was a display of sincere, deep questioning). And I can see my own reflection in the movie depiction of Moses, asking the same question, wrestling with the same issues about this God and his words.

Now, I will share what I didn't like about this movie. Firstly, I thought the movie opened in a confusing, irrelevant manner. The story attempted to use a battle scene, to establish the character for Moses and Ramses. In my opinion, the long battle scene failed to adequately introduce Moses and Ramses to the audience, and the story exposition was quite rigid and not very informative.

However, the weak opening is not as unforgivable as the ending of this movie. I found the ending of Exodus: Gods and Kings to be epically awful, and it completely ruined the film for me. This movie is 150 minutes in length. Out of which, about 120 minutes are centred around the events leading up to the Exodus (Moses' exile, return to Egypt, the ten plagues etc..), it climaxed at the scene when God parted the Red Sea, these parts are interesting and gripping. However, instead of ending the movie after the scene at the Red Sea, the movie continued (unnecessarily) for another 10 to15 minutes. This ending contains the scenes about the golden calf, and the ten commandments. But it was a rushed ending, where the movie ended with a few hastily stapled together scenes, with practically zero story expositions! Seriously, this has to the worst, and the most anti-climatic ending of all Ridley Scott movies.

Exodus: Gods and Kings is a movie with great potentials. When this movie is viewed in 3D, Ridley Scott's artistic visions thrives on vistas of breathtaking, visual spectacles. In terms of storytelling, this movie began with a somewhat confused opening, then it gradually eased into 120 minutes of gripping, interesting interpretations on the biblical exodus, while remaining faithful to the source material. However, the disastrous, anti-climatic ending greatly reduced whatever potentials this film promised in the trailer release. In the meantime, the audience will just have to wait and see, in the next biblical movie, if Hollywood will finally get it right.

P.S.
I wonder if there is an “extended cut, or uncut” version for this film, to be released in the future. If there is one, perhaps the ending would be better?