What
happened, Ridley Scott? At one point in time I would have strongly considered
the mastermind behind Alien and Blade Runner one of my favorite directors; his
director’s cuts were stuff of legend (Blade Runner and Kingdom of Heaven to
name a couple) and even if Robin Hood was a bit of a misstep, he was the master
of swords and sandals flicks (Gladiator remains of the best examples of this
genre). However, with his most recent film, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Ridley
Scott has really made me question whether or not he might have lost the touch.
Exodus is of
course the movie that has become infamous for its mostly all-white cast (in
case you’re unaware this is a movie all about Egyptians, who almost certainly
don’t look very white), which has caused more than a few people to boycott the
film and the country of Egypt to ban it altogether. So just how bad is the
casting, really? Well, let’s put it this way, the cast in any film, shouldn’t
distract from the movie; in the case of Exodus, the casting is so off-putting,
it was hard for me to concentrate on anything else. First of all, Joel Edgerton
plays the role of Ramses, and for those who don’t know Joel Edgerton, he might
possibly be the least pharaoh-like person to ever grace the movie screen, and
the choice to cast Sigourney Weaver as his mother is even worse. These aren’t
the only bizarrely miscast roles, however, there’s also Christian Bale as Moses
(cue the “guy named Christian plays Moses” jokes) Aaron Paul as Joshua (who’s
not even supposed to be in this story) and finally the casting of God himself,
but more on that later. Remember, these people are supposed to be Egyptian (and
Jewish) characters, and not only are they not remotely Egyptian or Hebrew, but
they’re so far from it I can’t even take the film seriously. Literally, every
scene looks like white people dressed in poor imitation Egyptian makeup
shouting at each other with bizarre accents (are they supposed to be Egyptian
accents? Or Egyptian-like English accents? I’m so confused). All of this might
(but probably wouldn’t) be excusable, if the movie itself was actually entertaining,
but alas, it is not.
Normally,
I’m not one to be a stickler over changes from the original source material in
an adaptation, as long as these changes are at least somewhat creative and bring
new light to the story; I can safely say this is not the case with Exodus. I’m
sure “fans” of the original story won’t appreciate many of the changes here,
and I can’t say that I did either, mostly because they’re just plain
disappointing. For example, the oft-referenced burning bush scene is completely
ruined here; for whatever reason instead of god speaking to Moses through a
burning bush, he instead stands next to a burning bush, while Moses takes an
oddly timed mud spa bath (I know it doesn’t make sense, but this is what
happens). Not only that, but the god in question is played by a rather
unimpressive eight year-old boy with a bad haircut, which is far from inspired
casting but I wouldn’t expect much else at this point.
There’s
plenty wrong with Ridley Scott’s latest effort, but honestly, it’s not even
worth going into in any great detail. The red sea parting looks fine visually,
but it’s nothing new, and the ending is somewhat anti-climactic (actually, it’s
very anti-climactic, but I barely cared anymore at that point anyway). If
you’re looking for a faithful adaptation, look elsewhere; if you’re looking for
an exciting swords and sandals type epic, look elsewhere; seriously, just look
elsewhere, period. If you want to watch a good adaption of this story, I
suggest The Prince of Egypt, it’s on Netflix right now; or if you’re looking
for good Ridley Scott, The Gladiator is on there too; but, ultimately, just
anything besides Exodus: Gods and Kings.
-Ryan Maples
Rating: 3.
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