The Gist:
Moses (Bale) is a general and the adopted son in the Pharaoh’s army. After it is discovered that he is of Hebrew decent, he is exiled by his stepbrother and king Ramses (Edgerton). He will soon discover that he is the chosen one who will free the slaves and restore balance to the force.
The Review:
After the catastrophe that was Prometheus, Ridley Scott has taken a step back and returned to the swords and sandals epic, this time in the form of Moses. Rather than give us a full on back-story which has become common ground in this day and age, Exodus begins with a fully grown and battle scarred Moses. Ten minutes into the film and Scott is back to doing what he does best. Generals bark orders, thousands of riders on horseback charge, wheels clash resulting in chariots being catapulted into the air and Moses mowing down dozens with a single sword. It’s gritty, it’s brutal, well shot and edited, something you can expect from Scott.
The film then slows down for an hour or so, building up characters and relationships then destroying them all together. Moses visits the slaves where he encounters Nun (Ben Kingsley) who informs Moses about his past and destiny. Ramses gets word of where his stepbrother originally came from and exiles him, despite his mother Tya’s (Weaver) tantrums to have him executed.
After a Lord of the Rings type montage of over the head shots of Moses travelling across Egypt he finds himself in a village where he falls in and love and marries. Nine years later after receiving a head wound from a rock slide he is finally visited by God in the form of a young boy. Surely that could rile up the religious folk, especially when Bale goes all Batman and roars in the boy’s face in frustration. When Moses decides to leave his wife (Maria Velverde) and save his people, it was then when I made a note to check the Bible once again. I was sure in class that never was it mentioned that Moses was such a badass. He trains the slaves to fight, he’s a tactician but most of that fails, Ramses is stubborn and won’t give in which leads up to the plagues. In a probably unintentional scene, the messenger/God tells Moses to step aside and let him have some fun. That is when Scott unleashes the plagues in true glorious and brutal fashion. Crocodiles perform a mass attack/suicide which turns the rivers red. Flies are everywhere, millions of frogs storm the towns and castles. There is a funny cameo by Ewen Bremmer playing a sort of scientist who is trying to explain to the kings what and why the plagues are happening. It doesn’t end well for him.
And here is where we address some of the problems. As many know, the film was plagued (sorry) with controversy due to the main cast being all white. Well after watching the final product it really doesn’t matter because besides Bale and Edgerton, everyone and I mean everyone has been reduced to nothing more than a glorified cameo. Aaron Paul’s Joshua has max five lines, Ben Kingsley is there to deliver his few bits of dialogue and so on. This is all because Scott decided to focus on the dynamic between brothers this time round.
Usually in these epics, everyone speaks with a clear British accent. Bale instead opts for his native Welsh, although some traces of Batman’s gruff throat growls are heard here and there. As usual he is a true force of nature, bringing a whole new depth and level to the character that I didn’t know about or hadn’t seen before. In this iteration, Moses is for the most part an atheist, not even agnostic, he downright doesn’t believe. Once God makes his appearance he riddled with doubt and Bale catches the essence just fine.
In the opposite corner, Edgerton is brilliant as Ramses. Make no mistake, Commodus this is not. Ramses is torn that he had to exile his brother while trying to run a nation. The two actors work well together and are what binds the movie together.
The Verdict:
As you can expect, Scott’s production design is nothing short of spectacular. Ancient Egypt is fully realised through a combination of sets and CGI, the partly built pyramids and the sphinx are jaw droppingly beautiful. Bale and Edgerton are great but the movie does fall flat at times. Half an hour, if not more, could have been cut out but it seems there is an unwritten law that such movies should exceed the two hour mark.
Certificate: 12A
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, Aaron Paul
Running Time: 154 minutes
Release Date: 26th December 2014
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