Exodus: Gods and Kings
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley
150 mins; Class PG;
KRS Releasing Ltd
The story behind Exodus: Gods and Kings is, of course, based on the biblical figure of Moses, the chosen one by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery under the Egyptians.
It is the story of two boys raised as brothers, Moses (Christian Bale) and the pharaoh-in-waiting Ramses (Joel Edgerton) who, as adults, find themselves on opposite sides of the religious and political divide as Moses discovers his true identity and takes on the mantle of saviour of his people.
The man behind this 21st century telling of the tale is Ridley Scott, the 77-year-old director who has created an amazing legacy.
Yet notwithstanding the fact Exodus looks absolutely amazing, the whole does not add up to the sum of its parts and the spectacle cannot make up for the surprising lack of emotional engagement.
Not as powerful as it should have been
Scott’s casting is pretty much on the nose. Christian Bale is a charismatic Moses, strong, imposing, fired by faith at times and riddled with doubt in others.
His development from entitled prince of Egypt to man of God is convincing. Edgerton’s Ramses is equally effective.
The Australian actor hits all the right notes as an ambitious, yet effete, man desperate to please his father, but forever living in the shadow of Moses.
The likes of Ben Kingsley, John Turturro, Aaron Paul and Sigourney Weaver – the latter sorely underused as Ramses’s scheming mother Tuya – add to the solid ensemble Ridley has amassed.
The plagues are all disturbingly illustrated, from the rivers of thick red blood to the swarms of locusts and, finally, the parting of the Red Sea.
The latter starts off deceptively quietly before erupting in a roaring explosion of God’s wrath. That is worth the price of admission alone.
And yet, for a story that is about human suffering on a grand scale and the enormous odds undertaken by one man to relieve his people from bondage, there is something missing, almost as if any deeper emotions are overwhelmed by the images on screen.
Bale’s commitment to the role is absolute, yet he doesn’t rally the audience as effectively as he rallies his people.
Furthermore, the premise of having God speak through the person of a young boy is an intriguing one, certainly, yet one whose execution was not as powerful as it should have been.