I try to watch films BEFORE reading the book, because the movie is rarely as good as the book, but add in a well-known story that has been made into a movie numerous times, and the fact that I am a Christian, I think that ship has sailed. Despite those facts, there are more great movies about Moses than not. Cecil B. DeMille made two titled The Ten Commandments: a black and white version in 1923 and the beloved classic starring hottie Charlton Heston (the fact that his shirt was off quite frequently probably didn’t hurt in making it a classic). Ben Kingsley has played Moses two times: in an animated film and an excellent tv movie called Moses. Who doesn’t love the animated film starring Val Kilmer and Ralph Fiennes called The Prince of Egypt!?!
The key to these successful adaptations is that any thing that the film added to the story enhanced already strong existing narrative elements instead of throwing out the strongest parts of the story. Most of these films successfully elaborate on the relationship between Moses, an adopted member of the Egyptian royal family, and Pharaoh-a plot point alluded to, but not emphasized in the Biblical story. Some of these movies highlight Moses’ character transformation from being a proud, brash and highly physical-even murderous- leader to someone more introspective, humble and willing to take a back seat to God. Only Kingsley’s turn as Moses emphasizes Moses’ speech impediments and lack of desire to return to Egypt.
I purposely didn’t see Exodus: Gods and Kings in the movie theaters because I’m still angry with Ridley Scott for Prometheus. Scott historically has some problematic issues with spirituality and has been angry about being mortal for awhile now so I wasn’t eager to see his interpretation of a Biblical story-just make your space Jesus movie and be proud of what you do believe. Also he and Rupert Murdoch said some really messed up things about casting choices and even revamped the Sphinx to make him seem more British. Certainly casting habits haven’t changed in almost a century, but to defend it and unwittingly highlight it by casting darker skin people as extras means no more money for you! I love John Turturro, but casting him as Seti will neither get you blockbuster bucks nor points for authenticity considering that he is an Italian New Yorker. Even the Egyptian government told Scott to go pound sand.
So I knew that Exodus: Gods and Kings wasn’t going to be my jam, but I surprisingly didn’t hate it. Exodus: Gods and Kings maybe has a hot 10-20 minutes of dialogue in a 150 minute movie-it is all CGI and special effects at the expense of a good story. Scott wanted random battle scenes so he saw Moses as a guerrilla leader effectively eroding away Pharoah’s tyranny. Considering that very few slave rebellions can work because of lack of resources and weapons, I thought that was just silly. When Moses arrived, Ridley shows a long shot of flames and smoke to reveal that the Egyptians were already burning the slaves because there are so many. So the Egyptians were more than willing to kill all the Hebrews if they got rebellious so deciding to have a rebellion after that scene makes no sense. (Dear Ridley, were you trying to evoke the Holocaust? I don’t appreciate it, especially since the story ALREADY has a genocidal moment at Moses’ birth which you chose to tell, not show, which is fine, but don’t make one up if one already exists in the narrative.)
In Exodus: Gods and Kings, only after Moses effectively engages in battle, God comes in with the knock out punch of plagues. Oops, but He forgets to tell Pharaoh until a bunch of plagues already happens then Pharaoh gets a hastily scrawled note. Why does Exodus: Gods and Kings think that makes more sense than the original story? So at best, Pharaoh just thinks that he is having a rough first term, and God is just trying to take the credit after the fact. The dramatic tension between Moses and Pharaoh repeatedly facing each other and having a G/god dance challenge is mostly dropped. The good news is that Pharaoh is a super progressive dad because he is always cooing at his son and holding him.
I’m really excited that Christian Bale can comfortably pay his mortgage and college tuition for his kids, but for a good actor, his Moses is not memorable. Sigourney Weaver is in it for a minute. Ben Kingsley appears long enough to toss his excellent captivating self around then mostly disappears. It was nice to see Hiam Abbass in a blockbuster, but she is wasted. There was a random actor-I think it was Dar Salim who played Commander Khyan (thanks, imdb) who constantly had to admonish Pharaoh for basically being an incompetent fool, but his only line was, “Pharaoh,” but he acted the hell out of that word every time that he had to say it and threw all his emotion into it. He actually managed to emerge from the overwhelming production.
Exodus: Gods and Kings is all forest, no trees. Exodus: Gods and Kings sacrifices the human drama for a chance to create a retro 2012. There is little authentic human emotion infused into the spectacle. Oddly enough, the scenes involving Moses and God worked, especially whenever Joshua looked over and saw Moses talking to himself. Moses’ doubt and conviction converging at the Red Sea is the best part of the movie, but it is too little, too late though surprisingly hopeful for Scott who hasn’t had faith in any father figure ever. I thought that it should have ended there instead of the way that it did end. Oh well. Every great director should ask if a movie is still good if you had no money to make the film. If the answer is yes, then go big. Exodus: Gods and Kings is a paint by numbers, wannabe epic that has less human authentic emotion than its two dimensional animated counterparts.