This film had such promise, but the plot was horrifically awful, and many of the scenes were contrived beyond belief. The acting was okay, although I did find myself spending too much time staring at JGL's make-up and wondering what they were thinking. Disappointing.
Exodus: Gods and Kings was pretty bland. Some of the grander scenes were suitably epic in nature, but for the most part it was just filled with a serviceable script and average acting. God, the bioterrorist, is depicted in a very unfavorable light in all his Old Testament glory, with characters not hesitating to call him a child murderer and Moses himself questioning God's actions. The movie's sort of meant to be more "realistic" and so skips some of the fantastical elements of the story (e.g. the staffs turning into snakes), but this ends up not working very well and detracting from the movie instead. The parting of the Red Sea just ends up being water receding before a tsunami which just looks absolutely terrible and is obviously nowhere near as impressive as what you imagine it to be or what it's like in previous movies such as The Ten Commandments. This is a huge loss as the best parts of the movie end up being the "epic" parts, such as the early battle and the plagues, except Ridley Scott decided it would be a good idea to omit the most memorable part of the whole story. The closing of the Red Sea's still very impressive, but it's just not the same thing (also howdotsunamiswork). The editing for this section of the movie was really bad as well; the speed and distance of the tsunami kept varying depending on what shot type was used and the last strip completely changed from a set of cliffs to a beach.
Everybody who isn't Moses and Ramses/Ramesses has almost no development at all, with Aaron and Joshua in particular having basically no role of significance in the movie. I have no idea what was meant to be happening with the way Ben Kingsley talked. The whole thing was drawn out too long and ultimately lacked any emotional impact; this is meant to be founding myth of Israel, but instead becomes a story about terrorists and how Old Testament God was a dick. This obviously isn't a movie that's going to appeal to religious audiences (which I'm not a part of anyway) because of the depiction of God and it ignores key parts of the Exodus story, such as passing over the Passover altogether (geddit?). On the other hand though, there are references to things which people who aren't from a Judeo-Christian background are almost certainly not going to notice, such as a brief glimpse at the golden calf. I have no idea who this movie is meant to appeal to. If you want to watch a more enjoyable, Biblically-accurate and all-round better depiction of the Exodus, just watch The Prince of Egypt instead.
