Director -Ridley Scott
Cast - Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton
When you have Christian Bale paying Moses, you think to yourself that you are in for entertainment but wait, like all his movies Christian Bale went all out to surprise the audience; just doesn't work out this time. Christian Bale might seem like the best man around to play the epic character of "Moses" but apart from the right casting, this movie lacks on every other front.
Before it even hit the screens, the movie was in a huge controversy as we all know when some groups complained against white actors being cast to play Hebrews and Egyptians; seems like the gods and the kings did actually try to stop this catastrophe from happening but the humans involved in pre-productions found their way to make it happen.
If you compare Exodus with Hollywood's previous attempts to tell the Moses story, it falls flat on its face. Previous attempts like the 1998 classic "The Prince of Egypt" and the definitive "The Ten Commandments" made in 1956, entertained us and also showed us the details of the era very beautifully accompanied with great story telling while all Exodus accompanies is some yawns and a headache. The movie is scripted by Oscar winning writer, Steven Zaillian and is the most important aspect for any movie and is the most disappointing one as far as Exodus is concerned. Moses is reduced to a hunk and the wisest warrior around whereas in fact there was a lot of depth expected for this epic central character.
Joel Edgerton plays Seti's son Rameses, who defines rivalry in the movie and his character like the others is not sketched enough, and moreover it gives you nothing new to look or ponder at. Rameses also wears more make up than normal and it all makes it look unreal, not to forget the wholehearted use of gold and the golden colour to represent the royal Egyptians.
The basic problem here seems to be that there is no real distinction between the protagonist and the antagonist in the way the story is told, because the presence or absence of Moses does not really matter to how the royals live or die.
The boy god played by Isaac Andrews adds more boring moments and nothing else. Watch Exodus at your own risk, because even gods & kings cannot save you from the post movie headache.
