This review has been long overdue, about a year exactly. However, after watching the movie I felt compelled to give an accurate assessment so others could form a valid expectation and decide whether or not they wanted to watch it, now that it is free on Netflix.
Directed By: Ridley Scott.
Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Egerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, and Golshifteh Farahani.
Release Date: December 12, 2014.
Budget: 145-150 Million.
Box Office: 268.2 Million.
Ratings/Reception: This movie has been out for a year now and recently released to Netflix. It has since achieved a Rotten Tomato score of 4.9/10 (178 ratings) and an audience score of 2.8/5 (59,414 ratings).
Exodus Filmography
I am no expert in film, however I found the filming to be of good quality. Everything was done as though a thriller or suspense movie would be done and it did not look cheesy. It is clear that heavy use of a green screen is present in many parts of the film and it makes certain scenes look unnatural.
Wardrobe and costumes are in line with what would be expected from this time period. They also appear to be of good quality. Once again the film production does a good job with making all the visual aspects appealing and authentic.
Exodus Story Line
The story told by the film and the story told by the Bible are very different stories. It would be fair to say that the film is only very loosely based on the biblical account. Unfortunately, the story line is not very clear either. Even if one accepted the differing story line, one would still struggle to understand everything happening in the story because it is very choppy. It moves from event to even with little explanation or foreshadowing.
The Good
The thing about this film I liked the most was that it did a good job of trying to describe what Egyptian life would have been like as well as what it might have been like living as a prince in the land. It puts a lot of things into view that might otherwise not be known to the average Bible reader.
- Special effects looked authentic, other than some green screen work at the beginning of the movie.
- Christian Bale did a great job. He is very convincing.
- Character development is not terrible. It’s nothing to write home about either.
The Bad
I would have still enjoyed this movie if a few things did not happen. Here is the list of awful.
- The script is horrific.
- Plot development is equally bad. Very choppy and often confusing.
- God is represented by a strange 10 year old boy.
- The 12 plagues have barely a vague resemblance to the ones in the Bible and there are not even 10 of them.
- For some reason God instructs Moses to leave his wife and family in this venture, even though his family is clearly with him on several occasions in the biblical story.
- Somehow Moses’ special rod, given by God, is replaced with an Egyptian sword given to him by the Pharaoh from when he was still living in the palace.
- The movie seems to trivialize God and religion in general.
- “God” seems to suggest that the 10 commandments is a fair replacement for Himself as leader of the people.
Bottom Line
Should you see the movie? I suppose I would still recommend watching it free on Netflix, but for the love of all that is sacred, DO NOT pay money for this film. It bears little no resemblance of the original story and it really paints the Hebrews in fundamentalist and fanatic light.