At 150 minutes long, Exodus: Gods and Kings is a brave attempt to ensure the epic Biblical story of Moses is drawn out in epic proportions. The key term here is 'drawn out'. Many scenes are stretched beyond the limits of enjoyment and it drags at times. Despite this, Ridley Scott manages to create moments of cinematic gold and the cast (Christian Bale, John Turturro, Ben Kingsley, et al) do a fine job given the lack of character development that 'plagues' the film. And it's not the only plague...
20th Century Fox describes the film as "the story of one man's daring courage to take on the might of an empire. Using state of the art visual effects and 3D immersion, Scott brings new life to the story of the defiant leader Moses as he rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses, setting 600,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt and its terrifying cycle of deadly plagues." And yet you have to live through half the film before the burning bush even appears.
If we set aside the spectacular moments and dramatic plagues, the overall film is uneven and uninspiring. It's also worth noting that Exodus: Gods and Kings does not follow the Old Testament story accurately. For instance in the film, there are fewer than ten plagues and a bizarre angry alligator spree is one of the plagues. Another interesting twist is the character of Moses. Moses is portrayed as a man with doubts initially and then you're left wondering. And that's not the only thing you'll be wondering about. Needless to say, this film won't exactly please the more religious types and yet it also won't score major points with less religious people.
Our rating: 5.5 Steps out of 10.
Watch the trailer: