When Hollywood thinks Bible it thinks Old Testament. With its stories of violence and miracles the OT is OG.
It reminds us mankind’s infatuation with magic and bloodshed is nothing new. Hollywood’s renewed interest, of course, is related to the digital technology that allows old stories to be told in new ways and their commercial potential.
So if you believe in things that you can’t understand “Exodus: Gods and Kings” may feel a little secular to you.
It is persuasive blockbuster storytelling in scale in and scope but without conviction for anything beyond its big bad, in 3D – where available – Biblical self. The scriptural subject matter simply offers action packed narrative in the public domain, of the sort director Ridley Scott excels in, and in the epic vein of his Oscar winning best picture “Gladiator.”
Christian Bale – great first name – plays a charismatic Moses, with perfect teeth and a scruffy beard. He is the adopted brother of the Egyptian king Ramses, played by Joel Edgerton and in an opening battle, Moses fulfills an omen by saving Ramses’ life.
But when Moses is revealed as a Jew he is exiled, spends years in the desert, marries and has a son.
One day God appears to him in the form of a peevish 11 year old boy, played by Isaac Andrews. Go home, God says, and free your people, enslaved, impoverished and abused while building monuments to false gods.
When Ramses refuses to help, Moses begins a guerilla campaign of violence and destruction against the Egyptian people and their infrastructure.
When that fails God takes matters into His own hands with apocalyptic chaos. Spoiler alert for atheists; there are rivers of blood (caused by giant alligators), a plague of frogs, swarms of locusts, gnats and maggots, disease and the deaths of the first born – all digitally airbrushed into life without feeling viscerally compelling – before Ramses surrenders.
And even then his army pursues the Hebrew nation into a Red Sea, that has been parted by invitation only.
How is this movie different than any other? It’s not.
Ridley is a high priest at the church of the blockbuster and observes its bigger is better aesthetic.
With “Exodus” he practices what he preaches.
Three stars
With Christian Slater, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, Sigourney Weaver, Maria Valverde, Ben Kinglsey, Isaac Andrews. Produced by Peter Chernin, Mark Huffam, Michael Schaefer, Ridley Scott, Jenno Topping. Written by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine, Steven Zaillian. Directed by Ridley Scott.
Approximate running time: 150 minutes. Rated PG-13, battle scenes, intense images.
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