This Exodus: Gods and Kings review finds the film insipid, bland, and weak but carries all along with that Ridley flair that we all adore. We all know the Moses story, right? Now take that and start abruptly with a war no one cares for, a prophecy that isn’t theatrical, and the crucial intricate past that gets narrated via the narration of Ben Kingsley. Disaster huh? Okay, so Exodus Gods and Kings stood quite next to it.
The fact that Ridley Scott was making this epic saga into a movie was a big adrenaline rush per se. So hitting the theatres with mighty expectations was only customary.
Exodus: Gods and Kings Review — Breaking It Down
The tale starts out of the blue from a mere conversation about Hittite wars and a prophecy that comes from Seti entailing a man saving another who would become the leader. A weird way to start the movie actually. Nothing theatrical about it too.
The flick lacks focus. Where story building was important, frames are clearly skipped as we caper around on to different screens without finding proper closure.
Plot Spoilers Ahead
There are some crucial elements in Ridley’s direction that simply cannot be shaken off:
Plagues that plagued Egypt were subtly shown. We find a guy who endeavors to reason everything happening with a logical explanation. Scott as an atheist does try his best to manifest Malak, the messenger of God, subtly after a blow on Moses’s head knocks him out. A couple of shots of Joshua sneaking in to find Moses talking to nobody depicts that Malak could only be a figment in his head and that everything happened without a Godly venture. The practicality of the low tides, the sea drying out and cyclones seemed to usher in new-age thinking that Ridley perfected. Yet, there was a subconscious Hebrew helper that seemed to work in Moses’s favor all the time.
You sleep well because you’re loved. I’ve never slept that well.
Climactic bits of Exodus: Gods and Kings were great to watch. The ending wraps up with ‘For my brother Tony’ which takes you some years back to the unfortunate death of Tony Scott. It was a warm gesture. And Respect!
Other Characters in Exodus
Even though the visuals were great, most of the movie ran dark. Aaron Paul is simply there. A mere observer. He has the most limited lines and gawks at Moses’ madness for hours. Falling for Zipporah is sour. It lacked drama. Joel Edgerton being a great actor ends up moderating perversion. Christian Bale looks great as Moses but doesn’t impress much.
There are so many minute details in the Exodus story that has simply gone unnoticed owing to the compact tale Scott wove. My advice: Make it a TV Series instead and justice shall be done!
Haven’t watched The Ten Commandments but from what I gather it was still better.
If you want to watch a good Exodus story, just watch the animated flick ‘The Prince of Egypt’. Way better than this one!
Why the Story Feels So Distant
The biggest problem is not that Scott approaches a familiar story with a modern eye. That could have been exciting. The problem is that the film moves through its important turns before they can grow into anything. Moses learns who he is, loses what he knew, and finds a new calling, but the journey often feels like a list of major events instead of a life changing in front of us.
There is a strange coldness to the way the drama is arranged. The grand moments arrive with expensive visuals, but the smaller moments that should make them hurt do not get enough room. When a film is taking on faith, family, power, and slavery, it needs more than a succession of impressive images. It needs people who feel fully present inside those ideas.
Ridley Scott’s Best Instincts
That said, this is still Ridley Scott, and traces of his flair keep peeping through. The scale of Egypt, the darkness of the palace, and the harshness of the desert give the picture a real visual identity. Scott can make a frame look lived in even when the script does not know quite where to take the characters next. The plagues are among the better choices because they feel unsettling rather than merely decorative.
His practical reading of the miraculous material is also more interesting than the film around it. The possibility that Moses is trying to make sense of what he sees gives the story an uneasy edge. It is not a replacement for deeper character work, but it is one of the few places where the movie seems to be asking a question instead of simply retelling an answer.
Performances That Need More Room
Christian Bale carries Moses with the seriousness the role demands, although the writing rarely lets him surprise us. Joel Edgerton has the harder task because Ramses needs to be more than a sneer, and the film does not always give him that dignity. Aaron Paul and the rest of the supporting cast are left waiting around the edges of a story that should have made their relationships matter.
That is why the whole thing feels like a compact version of something that needed more time. A television series could have allowed the politics, the faith, the family rift, and the journey through Egypt to breathe. Here, the movie has the broad outline but often misses the intricate human detail that would make the conflict memorable.
Final Verdict
This Exodus: Gods and Kings review still comes down on the same point: the visuals are grand, the ideas occasionally spark, and the finale has real force, but the dramatic heart is too faint. The film wants to be an epic and often looks like one. It simply does not earn every beat that an epic needs. For a more satisfying take on the story, the animated The Prince of Egypt remains hard to beat.
For more films from the year, browse our 2014 movie reviews.
Check out the trailer of Exodus: Gods and Kings here:
Exodus: Gods and Kings Review — Final Thoughts
This Exodus: Gods and Kings review keeps returning to the same issue: the film has scale, but too little dramatic weight.
Exodus: Gods and Kings
