Ridley Scott knows how to create drama and, more importantly, the famed director, sometimes scrutinized, is keen on bringing larger than life characters down to a human level. He made us all care for a general turned gladiator. Scott helped us question our own humanity through the eyes of a (possible) replicant in Deckard. The director put us right in the middle of space to feel isolated, alone and fearful for Ripley in her survival horror opus. In short, the guy brings us memorable characters that feel real, regardless of situation or their respective film’s box office success.
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So what does a man with an incredible talent for creating timeless characters do when he meets two characters that are timeless? He jumps in and tries to ground them, but also attempts to maintain their well known aura. Not an easy task, even for a master like Ridley Scott.
Thus, we have Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Following a harsher view of Moshe (Moses), in a similar light to Darren Aronofsky’s Noah character, the film begins with the audience going through a hasty recap of Moses’ (Christian Bale) relationship with soon-to-be Pharaoh, Ramses (Joel Edgerton). Two very different men with incredibly different roots, one rich and privileged, the other tough and torn, acting like brothers in life and in war. All of which is fine…until a prophecy is read that that will tear the two apart.
I don’t honestly mind that the Scott skips the introductions and gets straight to dinner with this film. Granted, I wish there had been just a little bit more recap of their chance encounter at the beginning of their lives, but enough is established through dialogue and action to show how close they are as pseudo kin. Most film folks have certainly familiarized themselves with The Ten Commandments, which is an epic film on every single level with priceless performances by Charles Heston and Yul Brynner, but I would be lying if I said Cecil B. DeMille’s masterpiece didn’t run a bit long in the tooth after awhile. I know, I know — shame on me. I suspect most of you all feel the same way, but aren’t idiot enough to admit it.
Anyway, to my point, Scott basically chops out what he probably deems unnecessary and presents us with dilemma and action straight out of the gate. It’s as if he saw The Ten Commandments and said, ‘Blokes, let’s get to the good stuff.’ I couldn’t agree with him more. The problem with that, though, is that by eliminating the slow development and trying to replace it with quick development through action is that Scott hurts the very thing he is known for having — strong characters. Both characters suffer a bit from that, even though we know who they are and where their intentions lie within the story. We know that Moses will change his situation to help those suffering. We understand that Ramses will let his pride get in the way of his sensibilities. Understanding it doesn’t help the characters onscreen, it just helps us work through it some way. Seeing it develop because Scott spends a great amount of time crafting his own vision of Moses and Ramses is what will work, but it never happens.
As the movie presses forward, Moses completely makes a new life for himself outside of Ramses, which is great, but his new life is soon overshadowed by his old one, and the prophecy foretold earlier in the story. After Moses meets with a burning bush and a young boy who is the personification of God, he finds direction and ends up leaving everything behind to help free his brethren in Egypt.
Now it’s all starting to sound familiar, right? Let my people go and such, right? The film is creeping towards that moment, but it doesn’t completely put itself on track with DeMille’s work quite yet.
Thinking God wants a general, Bale’s Moses prepares the enslaved brethren behind the backs of their Egyptian captives for one-on-one war, which is as effective as a fly wanting to damage a car windshield. This is a puzzling move for the story to go in, as you would expect that Moses would be focused and ready to go, putting full faith in God and his plan. But Ridley Scott and his band of writers somehow don’t want to go that direction, which is confusing considering that Moses to this point has left his family and left his life to do God’s bidding. They purposely make God’s directions to Moses vague at best, so vague in fact that it seems like God (onscreen) doesn’t really know what he is doing. It’s odd, but if you follow the old scripture, it’s not like God was kind and giving straight-up directions in a kind way to anyone.
So, what happens prior to the movie getting on the ‘old familiar track’ is Moses and his small group of guerrilla fighters do enough to disrupt and gain the attention of Egypt, but not enough to hurt the Egyptians to the point where they send the troops. It’s a small rise and fall in the story, but enough to disrupt the flow completely.
Once God sees the capabilities of Moses and his men, and the direction they think they should be going in, he basically tells Moses, “I got this. Calm your shit” (paraphrasing) and the hellfire we know and love from previous renditions of this story starts to fall into place. And this is a frustrating part because you’ll be as baffled as Moses is when God gets to this point. Moses is thinking, “Well, why didn’t you just do this in the first place?” (paraphrasing). That never gets answered, but it’s too late to care as Ridley Scott and his writers start to really hit their stride with the gradual Egyptian punishment.
The way they present each stage of Egypt getting blighted is explained through actual, believable events. It’s even literally explained by an Egyptian character, and it somewhat makes sense. The blood of men and animals spreads into the Nile, so much that it kills the fish. The death of the fish flush frogs onto land, which die because they need water to live. Their dead bodies create maggots and flies, which bring major amounts of disease with them. All of this seems feasible. Of course, the death of first-born sons is probably the only Godly end not fully explained in a natural way, which is fine because at this point the story makes you go all in on Moses doing God’s work and God’s plan coming to fruition.
The story concludes with what you know and love, which is a great high note, but I don’t want to ruin it for those who have never experienced it before.
I will say that by focusing more on God’s will and getting the slaves out of Egypt, and less on Moses, the story certainly feels a bit more empty. Like it or not, Moses’ presence in The Ten Commandments made him a larger than life character, as people think of him before they probably think of God when it comes to that 1956 classic. Scott’s approach takes the spotlight away from Moses and makes him someone who must repent for the sins he committed in his former Egyptian life. He himself has almost become more of a slave to God’s will in this story, which is probably closer to Exodus than The Ten Commandments. It’s a bold direction to take with a character like Moses, but in hindsight it does make sense.
Moses struggles in Exodus: Gods and Kings. He is enormously flawed and acts more like a beaten and forced messenger than someone who sees each hellfire from God through. It’s odd, but it works if you look at it that way.
Still, expectations for something epic and a bit more developed is too overpowering to overcome when viewing this movie. It certainly has its strong moments, especially the end, but it doesn’t quite leave the impression as similar movies telling the same story. It’s worth a go, though.
Moving away from the Biblical portion of this review, let me just say that I’m still highly impressed with the DigitalHD format. As I’ve stated in previous DigitalHD reviews, I’m slowly coming around to the fact that maybe we don’t need a physical disc anymore. Having the ability to view this movie in iTunes through my television without the need of a disc is a great option in my opinion. I have five kids in the household and I’ve seen what the little monsters (bless them) do to my DVD and Blu-ray collection (they actually scratched a Blu-ray disc — I have never seen that happen since the technology has been out). Fight Club was the first victim and another Fincher film bit it last week (yeah, I know what you’re thinking, but when you have kids, you’ll see how it goes). Anyway, DigitalHD provides me with the same quality, same features and it’s accessible anywhere (phone, tablet, computer, etc.) This might sound like some grand, unnecessary endorsement for the format, but I’m honestly starting to lean the Digital route since I’m losing nothing but a breakable disc in the equation.
Anyway, Exodus – Gods and Kings looks superb in 1080p on the DigitalHD format. It looked sharp on my LCD in my living room and I couldn’t ask for a better picture at this moment. It looks sharp and sounds sweet, which is what I’m looking for in my movies.
As far as what it delivers in the special features department, here’s what you can look forward to from the DigitalHD version of the film:
– Commentary from Ridley Scott
– The Lawgiver’s Legacy: Moses Throughout History
– Production Diaries
– Deleted Scenes and Extended Scenes
– The Gods and Kings Archive
While this might not look like a lot, you get quite a bit with the production diaries (almost every aspect of the film’s creation process), the deleted scenes/extended scenes are nice, and the Gods and Kings Archive gives you some information (and goodies) about the pre-production, production and post production of the film.
The Lawgiver’s Legacy is a nice 20+ minutes of explanation about Moses and his variations. Did you know that Ramses wasn’t specifically named as the Pharaoh in the original story? Me neither. It’s got a lot of interesting facts about the story of Moses and about what the film was trying to accomplish. It’s an excellent extra.
The commentary is probably the best of the bunch, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Nonetheless, a solid set of features for a DigitalHD delivery.