Exodus: Gods and Kings (Ridley Scott)

[Henry Gale]

http://www.exodusgodsandkings.com/images/posters/poster-1.jpg

IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1528100) / Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus:_Gods_and_Kings)

[Henry Gale]

There's just nothing to this. It's like a studio head one day saw a storm on TV and said, "Hey, no one's made a big Moses movie in a while!", and managed to call up all of these people before they all realized there was no actual new take on the material other than it's a more "grounded" and handsomely rendered but no more modern or interesting version than anything anyone can muster in their own minds from even the faintest cultural absorption of the story and all its past iterations.

You really have to wonder why Bale would turn down Noah, and actually provocative, ethereal, singular approach to a broad, redundantly told Biblical story, and chose to take this low-fat, flavourless vanilla. Sure less people will be up in arms about elements to be found here (other than maybe God being portrayed as a vision of an asshole kid), but that implies both that there's any risks to take issue with, or that anyone will even care to see it at all. Instead we got Crowe, despite being Scott's recent go-to lead, who lucked out there and had Aronofsky push possibly one of his best performances out of him. Here, Bale -- like almost all of the cast with the exception of maybe Edgerton and his alluring campiness, which sometimes shines through but seems to have been edited around wherever else possible... (An early scene where he fondles a snake is a brief highlight here.) -- is more or less an non-entity. The volume and intensity in which he speaks goes up and down, and his facial hair fluctuates whenever you need to know time has passed, but there's arguably no fabric of a character to even be played here. You have a movie with those two leads, Ben Mendelsohn, Aaron Paul, John Tuturro, Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver, and they're all boring to watch. Moses' wife (MarÃ*a Valverde) is gorgeous though, and a more compelling on screen presence than most of the top line actors, so... I guess if nothing I'll keep an eye out for her elsewhere.

Otherwise, it just kind of exists. (Or, will in about a week's time.) As much as I commend Scott's hustle and drive to make movies as technically challenging as this well into his 70's, I really wish he'd take the time to deal with material with more edge and vigor to them. I don't think even a drastic, Kingdom of Heaven-style Director's Cut would be able to strengthen what's already here. Hopefully a story like The Martian's can inspire him enough to shift away from these sort of generic crutches in him.

** / 4.4

[transmogrifier]

Robin Hood is my choice for most stunningly pointless, featureless, nothing film of all time - it has no highs or lows or points of discussion or new take on anything. It just is, a film that arose out of a bunch of film people sitting around thinking "Well, I guess we should shoot something, what else are we hoping to do for six months?"

Good to see Scott is returning to that well.

[Ivan Drago]

Robin Hood is my choice for most stunningly pointless, featureless, nothing film of all time - it has no highs or lows or points of discussion or new take on anything. It just is, a film that arose out of a bunch of film people sitting around thinking "Well, I guess we should shoot something, what else are we hoping to do for six months?"

Good to see Scott is returning to that well.

That cinematic universe better include a Friar Tuck movie. All three of the Robin Hood fanboys are clamoring for one.

[EvilShoe]

Robin Hood is my choice for most stunningly pointless, featureless, nothing film of all time - it has no highs or lows or points of discussion or new take on anything. It just is, a film that arose out of a bunch of film people sitting around thinking "Well, I guess we should shoot something, what else are we hoping to do for six months?"

Good to see Scott is returning to that well.
That ending line is one of the most offensive things in recent film history. Horrible movie.

[Ivan Drago]

I saw this in a huge Big D theater, with high-quality sound, and I was dozing off. That's how boring this movie is.

[Henry Gale]

I honestly forgot I'd seen this in 3D until I saw a commercial advertising it that way.

Especially disappointing as someone who still genuinely enjoys the tool and was a big fan of how Scott utilized it with Prometheus. Here, I remember the collapsing of a hillside looking really nice, but maybe because it was one of the few genuinely awesome moments in it anyway. Otherwise... Maybe some of the plagues used depth and detail well... ?

Anyone who watches BBC's Film 2014 (or can find it online) has to see Danny Leigh's interview where Scott keeps calling him and any critics of the production "Dude!" for no apparent reason. It's absurdly funny and almost made me see a little better the sort of personality he might be at the point in his career to make something like this.

He also confirmed with Collider that his first cut was 4.5 hours and that it played perfectly well for him, but that only 25 minutes of those scenes will be on the Blu-ray, separate from any edit. So any small hope for a version of this with more meat on its bones and ideas in its head is kind of dashed.

[Ivan Drago]

I honestly forgot I'd seen this in 3D until I saw a commercial advertising it that way.

Especially disappointing as someone who still genuinely enjoys the tool and was a big fan of how Scott utilized it with Prometheus. Here, I remember the collapsing of a hillside looking really nice, but maybe because it was one of the few genuinely awesome moments in it anyway. Otherwise... Maybe some of the plagues used depth and detail well... ?

Anyone who watches BBC's Film 2014 (or can find it online) has to see Danny Leigh's interview where Scott keeps calling him and any critics of the production "Dude!" for no apparent reason. It's absurdly funny and almost made me see a little better the sort of personality he might be at the point in his career to make something like this.

He also confirmed with Collider that his first cut was 4.5 hours and that it played perfectly well for him, but that only 25 minutes of those scenes will be on the Blu-ray, separate from any edit. So any small hope for a version of this with more meat on its bones and ideas in its head is kind of dashed.

The one incredible sequence in this movie was the death of the firstborn sons.

Was this shot in 3D? Because it was dark as fuck in 2D.

[Dukefrukem]

This could have been as good as Gladiator. I think what hurt it most was Joel Edgerton. He's certainly no Joaquin Phoenix, but he needed to play more of a villain. He's just kind of there.