Exodus
Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton
Directed By: Ridley Scott
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi
[Rating: 1/5]
One of the many great things about good old Hollywood ‘Swords & Sandals’ epics were their scope. These films were positively huge, with giant sets and immense amounts of extras and effort put into the spectacle. These films felt giant because they were. Ridley Scott has been trying to emulate that level of scope and scale for a while now, from Gladiator to Robin Hood with varying levels of success. Now it appears he’s at it again with his new biblical ‘epic’ Exodus. Will Scott be able to successfully emulate that feeling of awe and scale that made those original epics so special or will his efforts simply seem small in comparison?
Exodus follows the well-trodden story of Moses (Christian Bale) who is raised as the adopted brother of Rhamses (Joel Edgerton) and serves as a general in his brother’s army. Rhamses is being groomed to be Pharaoh one day and sees it as his ultimate birth-right while Moses simply wishes to serve by his brother’s side. Things change, however, when a prophecy is made before a big battle saying that the one who saves Rhamses life that day would one day become a leader of his own army. This person, of course, turns out to be Moses and the events of that day set in motion Moses learning of his people and, ultimately, desiring to help them regain their long lost freedom.
One of the more troubling aspects of this film is how absolutely white-washed it is. It’s almost unbelievable that in this day and age they would still opt to slap a fake-tan and some eye-liner on a white actor and call him an Egyptian, let alone do that to an entire freaking movie. Joel Edgerton actually gives an admirable performance as Rhamses but the very nature of it still leaves a bitter taste in the viewer’s mouth that they are just watching a very elaborate and expensive game of ‘dress-up’. Sigourney Weaver in particular looks so out of place here it’s laughable, not to mention how criminally underused she is with basically only two lines in the whole two and a half hour experience. As unbelievable as it may be, even the racially insensitive casting issues aren’t this films biggest problem.
Exodus commits the worst crime a film possibly can, especially a film with such an ambitious run-time. It’s dull. The film actually gets off to a good start with an impressive, if overly hectic, battle scene and proceeds to set up the characters and various pieces of story. Then the rest of the film happens. It’s the exact same Moses tale you’ve seen a hundred times except somehow slower and more boring. There is no pace or tone to this film, it is utterly characterless and completely fails to engage its audience. It seems completely oblivious to the fact that it should be attempting to retain the audience’s attention and just meanders on at a snail’s pace. Even the miracles are reduced (again) to a montage and the only attempt at change made here is a half-assed attempt to make them kind-of tied to nature while still definitely being God’s work. It just doesn’t really work, like they tried to have their cake and eat it too. Let’s not even talk about the kid who plays God. Let’s just say I’ve seen better child actors in pull-up diaper commercials.
Technically the film is fine, but it doesn’t feel ‘epic’ beyond that first battle scene. Too many sets are recycled and the cinematography lacks a level of scope that really prevents this film from feeling big. It actually feels claustrophobic a lot of the time and, frankly, the CGI is utterly unconvincing. The film is perplexingly in 3D as well which brings utterly nothing to the table besides bleary eyes.
Exodus really doesn’t have a lot going for it, if anything at all. It’s not a new and interesting take on an old story, it’s the same story you already know. It’s not engaging, it’s not exciting, it’s not even impressive scope-wise. It’s just a dull, failure of a film that continues to prove that Ridley Scott may be utterly and absolutely past his prime. If you’re really really into biblical epics I suppose you might enjoy this film, but otherwise steer clear of this one unless you really like paying for a loud place to nap.
