Long Ago in Ancient Egypt there lived two brothers Moses (Christian Bale) and Ramses (Joel Edgerton) but when it becomes known that Moses is Hebrew by birth Ramses disowns him so Moses sets out to free his people from slavery.
Going into this film I had very mixed expectations mainly because I felt the films advertising campaign was very average plus Sir Ridley Scott who is the director of the film hasn't really impressed me over the years plus its Ancient Egypt setting just kept making me think of En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse's birth name from the X-Men series) and his Four Horsemen.
Could this film claim Dominion over my mixed hopes or did it mainly crash on the crash on the rocks of the eternal shore of expectations.
Well instead it was no closer than Scott's Prometheus from 2012 with its Sci-Fi setting and Alien esque undertones as this was not that good of a film but before I get into that in more detail I will talk about what I did like and that is Arthur Max's Production Design, Janty Yates's costumes and the visual effects work, this is a very handsomely mounted production and on that visual sense you are never bored.
But it does bore where it should count most and that is in the storyline and there are two reasons for this:
- The first is that this feels like a very hollow film to watch as you just sit there not really caring about any of the events going on screen and as a result you just keep thinking that for all of this glorious visual detail there's nothing underneath to give it any resonance.
- And the second point is that this is also a very predictable story, anyone who has seen the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston or even the Simpsons Bible Stories episode with Milhouse as Moses will know how this story plays out and Sir Ridley really needs to find a strong script as that was the key to why his classics in Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma and Louise have held up so well over the years whereas here the script falls very flat.
As for the casting this is quite frankly some of the worst I've seen in the last 2 years, Bale does what he can but he again comes across as hollow at times while Edgerton TENDS TO SHOUT SOME OF HIS LINES LIKE THIS AT TIMES!!! and I just kept wishing Joaquin Phoenix from Gladiator had been cast instead as he would've done a better job while Sigourney Weaver barely appears save for a few lines.
But that isn't all, John Turturro and Ben Mendelsohn were woeful in their roles opting for high camp which made me laugh at the film while Ben Kingsley just pretty much ended up playing Ben Kenobi from Star Wars hell I expected him to say "A young Jedi named Darth Vader who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil" in one scene of the film, whoever was the casting director for this film needs a stern talking to.
Oh and last point I did start wishing Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen would show up and end of the film at one point as I was getting bored by what I was watching on the screen.
And so I cannot recommend Exodus and would much rather recommend The Ten Commandments with Heston and Yul Brenner playing Ramses now THAT is a duo whereas this one falls flat, 1 out of 5.
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