Chernin Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, Babieka,

Christian Bale, Aaron Paul, Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley

The story of the life of Moses (Christian Bale) from his time as a young man in Egyptian royalty through his life exiled into the wilderness, to his triumphant march of the Israelite slaves out of bondage in Egypt and across the Red Sea on their way to Canaan. A controversial film, to say the least, but like other big budget films like Gladiator, Noah, 500, etc. this is a big budget full on visual delight. History? Perhaps not so much.

This certainly was not a badly done as Noah was. That was pretty horrible, really. But this also made some really strange choices as things went along. To call it “Exodus” gives the impression that it is going to be a remake of “The Ten Commands” from the Bible. But Ridley Scott made some really odd changes in the story that really didn’t need to be made. At first, I thought this was going to be a “void of Religion” scientific telling of “how it could have happened”. But it really didn’t turn out that way. It certainly played down the religious elements of the film. This is sacred Jewish history, but something that the Christians put a lot of faith in as well, as certainly Jesus was a descendant of these people. It’s belief that the Jews have to share. Even the Koran has this story in it as well. The look of this film in incredible. Made for 3-D, the sets and scenery are simply stunning. I must admit that it would have been much harder for Cecil B. DeMille to create what he did in the California Mojave Desert for Charleton Heston to march around in. There has to be comparisons between the two films. Though stunning for it’s time, the technology has brought so much more visual quality to the film today. Perhaps this is a problem, as the look is so absolutely stunning, that it seems they lost the power of one of the greatest stories ever. The movie runs over 2 1/2 hours, and it looks like it was chopped down quite a bit to make it that “short”. But at the same time, they really feel rushed through a lot of the very important parts, and spread out long scenes that seemed to have little purpose. I am not even going to chop down the religious elements of the movie, because that is personal belief, but some of the choices are mind boggling. The plagues are upon us quite suddenly, and portrayed with a great deal of clarity and reality, but the who purpose of who, what, why, and how, was largely just skipped over. Moses seems much more of a bystander to all of this, rather than the stunning leader and general the Heston portrayed. The burning bush where Moses talks to God is shown, but the bush has no purpose or real reason to even exist. God is a little British boy who is a bit of a brat, and only shows up when he feels like it, and gives Moses no real clue what to do. Likewise, Moses is wallowing in self doubt and mostly watching events unfold. Basically, I’m afraid this movie missed the mark because they simply forgot to pay attention to the storytelling because they were so enthralled by the special effects. This is a shame, as it could have been a real solid movie experience. You’re going to lose the religious fanatics immediately when you change anything from the Bible account, that’s to be expected. But they lost a great many of the rest of the public when the story just was so strange, and the casting rather haphazard, and the director was lost in the stars reveling over the technological miracles. They made a beautiful and stunning film with hollow storytelling.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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