Exodus: Gods and Kings

Few readers flipping the pages of the Bible might have imagined Moses as a buffed-up Old Testament action hero, but Exodus: Gods and Kings isn’t concerned with such details. It’s content to emphasize spectacle instead of substance.

In fact, the film’s casual disregard for passages of its source material might anger some viewers, even if it’s a remarkable technical achievement that marks a return to the sword-and-sandals battle epic for veteran director Ridley Scott (Gladiator).

The movie starts with some Egyptian family melodrama, specifically the growing rivalry between Moses (Christian Bale), the adopted Jewish son of the Pharaoh (John Turturro), and his real son, Ramses (Joel Edgerton). Eventually, they wind up on opposite sides of a conflict to free the Israelite slaves, which Moses agrees to lead.

Eventually, Moses gains more than 400,000 followers as he attempts to reach Mount Sinai and cross the Red Sea. Along the way, he communes with God (whose portrayal here is certain to raise some eyebrows) at the burning bush; negotiates plagues involving frogs, locusts, and even crocodiles; and accepts a combination of divine intervention and meteorological good fortune when escaping from Ramses’ vengeful army across the dangerous terrain.

With its grand scale and stirring tale of triumph over adversity, it’s easy to see why the book of Exodus has been adapted so many times for the big screen – most notably, of course, by Cecil B. DeMille and Charlton Heston in the seminal 1956 epic The Ten Commandments.

The commandments themselves aren’t as central to this version, which might be one of the most secular Biblical movies ever made. Spiritual persuasion or scriptural familiarity won’t matter much, in part because of a story that emphasizes more generic themes of revenge, obsession, and betrayal.

Still, the film is visually extravagant, with seamless special effects and lush 3D cinematography. Some of the spotlight moments – such as the Red Sea sequence and those involving the Egyptian plagues and the first Passover – are vivid and powerful.

There’s a deeper exploration of faith in the latter half, when Moses probes his relationship with God. Yet Scott and his team of four screenwriters take plenty of liberties, and in the process drain much of the depth that could have turned this Exodus into something more than a lumbering and obvious big-budget action flick. It never quite reaches its promised land.

 

Rated PG-13, 150 minutes.