​FILMS

gods of egypt

Oh God! What do we have here?

2016 review number 34:

Gods of Egypt: (Action/Adventure/Fantasy): 39 out of 100: The main news about this movie prior to its release was how no Egyptians were cast even though the story is about Egypt and its inhabitants. Now that it has finally been released the major talk should be about how silly it is. 140 million dollars was spent to make this? The poor and homeless in Egypt should have been given this money instead. Australian backers played a pivotal role in the funding of this production. It now seems like the stellar year of Aussie films in 2015 has been diminished by this so-called God hovering over its success. 'Gods' in name only, definitely not through merit.

 

Set (Gerard Butler) is a God of Egypt who has ambitions to reign supreme. He kills his brother Osiris (Bryan Brown) in order to ascend the throne. His nephew, Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) seeks revenge for his father's death but cannot possibly do so without his eyes, which have been taken away by his uncle. Mortal hero Bek (Brenton Thwaites) finds one of Horus' eyes that has special powers, locates his whereabouts and teams up with him. Their mission: kill Set and restore order to the once peaceful and prosperous empire.

 

The acting is simply atrocious. There's Gerard Butler's Scottish accent which seems so out of this place in this movie. There's Chadwick Boseman who camps it up as Thoth, the god of writing and knowledge. There's Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who delivers a wooden performance. There's Geoffrey Rush as Ra, the father of Horus and Set. He must have been in it for the money for this is one of his worst ever performances. At least Brenton Thwaites provides a hero that the audience can cheer for with his energetic and kinetic portrayal of the mortal who wins the trust of Horus. 

 

Even if the movie is aimed at generating escapism qualities, it doesn't excuse the awful dialogue. Here is an example of the dialogue that will make you wince: While Set is battling Bek, he asks him where Horus' eye is. Bek replies with, "Up your arse along with the goats!" There should have been some script editing in the development process.

 

There are several exciting action scenes which try to cover up the deficiencies in script and acting. It's only when the actors start talking again that you realise you have to endure further pain. The action sequences keep you awake, unfortunately the acting and dialogue do not. 

 

Where has the 140 million dollars gone? Most of it has probably gone to the visual effects which is predominantly CGI. It's not even state of the art CGI with some scenes looking decidedly fake. There is one scene involving a waterfall which is obvious to everyone that it has been generated by computer. 

 

Alex Proyas is the director and he has made a few decent films like I Robot, Dark City and The Crow. Gods of Egypt isn't one of them. He has gone out of control with trying to make this a visual spectacle by bombarding his audience with as many CGI effects as possible. Movies intended for the big screen still need to have a reasonable script and half-decent acting performances! 

 

Starring Brenton Thwaites, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Elodie Yung, Chadwick Boseman, Gerard Butler and Geoffrey Rush

(127 mins)

Parental advice: Violence

Additional scene during or after credits: No

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBnK2wNQSo (Movie trailer)

 

(Reviewed on Wednesday 24th February, 2016)

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