Exodus: Gods and Kings

Rightly or wrongly I am one of the more forgiving Ridley Scott fans when watching his work from this decade. Some will say the once-great director has lost his way now the younger producers are too afraid to control him while his passion projects get bigger and bigger but that's what I find makes him so interesting from other filmmakers today. This decade began with the so-so Robin Hood which I still enjoyed for its old school style, then there was the bold Prometheus that took a gamble with the Alien franchise and this was then followed by the stylish mess that was The Counsellor before he released Exodus: Gods and Kings in 2014.

Infamous for casting white actors instead of Egyptian, the suitably epic biblical story follows Moses (Christian Bale) leading a rebellion against Pharaoh Ramses II (Joel Edgerton) and escaping the deadly plague that ensued. The trouble for me with a story like this is that I already knew the ending but I still wanted to watch it fives years on from its release to see if this could offer any surprises. There was still the added benefit, similar to reading a book before watching the film adaptation, of seeing what I already knew receive Ridley Scott's interpretation but there was something missing here this time around.

When the film began it was great to see ancient Egypt brought back to life, outside of those cheap historical documentaries, with Scott's keen eye for visuals as he mixed CGI and practical effects to glorious effect. Exodus: Gods and Kings was in many ways trying to bring back the dead biblical epic sub-genre of Hollywood which thrived until the 1960s and so this alone made it a refreshing experience. Added to this, the acting is great from the two leads and John Turturro, meanwhile Ben Mendelsohn and Ben Kingsley play their archetypal roles to the letter. But unfortunately it's the thin story that cripples this film and the odd jumps in pacing which fail to do Scott's vision justice.

To make mattes worse, I couldn't help but sense Scott was recycling many tropes from his other films (an exact line from Gladiator is used here) and this became distracting. The director has confirmed there is a four hour cut of the film and I think that goes to show what we have here is a heavily diluted version which just doesn't quite deliver a satisfying experience.

Going back to where I began, I still found much to admire about with what Scott achieved here with all of its grand spectacle but this is not a film for everyone. Its looks great, has two strong leads but the story is just too disjointed and could have potentially benefited from whatever Scott cut out. The film is already 150 minutes long and if you're aiming for the sky at that rate, I'd hope a director like this would have the power to go all the way with delivering their vision.