Ridley Scott, a director with peerless visual skills, has always embraced the old-fashioned Hollywood epic. Films like 1492: Conquest of Paradise, Kingdom of Heaven, and Gladiator are the kind of sweeping, cast-of-thousands period epic that would have made Cecil B. DeMille proud. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense that Scott was attracted to Exodus: Gods and Kings; after all, there's nobody better suited to update DeMille's The Ten Commandments with modern effects and actors.
As the film opens, Moses (Christian Bale) is fighting alongside his brother Ramses (Joel Edgerton with a shaved head) to help defend Egypt, which is ruled by their father Seti (John Turturro). When Moses saves Ramses' life during a battle, Ramses fears that it's confirmation of a prophecy stating that his brother will become the king one day. Soon after Seti's death, Moses, who is actually Jewish and not Egyptian, is banished. However, he soon becomes the leader of the Jewish people and leads a rebellion -- with the help of a wrathful God -- against the Egyptians.
At a time when Christian and Biblical films are enjoying great success at the box office, Exodus: Gods and Kings is a throwback that's more interested in spectacle than scripture. That's not to say Scott doesn't remain true to the source material; he's not looking to court controversy, but he'd rather leave you slack-jawed by the visual wonder of a menacing locust cloud than sermonize.
In that regard, Scott delivers. This is a movie that prides itself on being absolutely extravagant when it comes to sets, costumes, and the sheer scope of the entire production. He revels in each of the plagues God unleashes on the Egyptians, giving us elaborate and repulsive boils, frightening alligators that turn the waters of Egypt red with blood, and scenes of diseased livestock being slaughtered.
Yet even with those elements in place, the lack of any immediacy, suspense, or compelling characters makes Exodus: Gods and Kings a crushing bore to sit through. Each member of the cast finds the perfect tone for his or her performance, giving the material the larger-than-life spin it requires without going over the top. That said, a little campiness might have made this two-and-a-half-hour behemoth a much more enjoyable viewing experience. The film's earnestness and overbearing visuals quickly become tiresome.
Moses never comes across as someone we can relate to; while there is one compelling scene during the plagues in which he tells God how hard it is for him to watch the people he grew up with suffer, that kind of emotional conflict isn't Scott's focus. He'd rather you oooh and aaaah at the swarms of flies descending upon Egypt.
By the time we finally get to the film's climactic sequence, there's been so much grandiosity that the end can't help but let us down. There's no way Scott can top what has come before, and to make matters worse, the sight of the Red Sea parting is one of the movie's least impressive effects: It looks like the CGI team ran out of time and money just as they had to cook up their greatest achievement. While some will want to revel in the state-of-the-art effects or enjoy seeing a Biblical story on the big screen, Exodus: Gods and Kings is just too big for its own good.