Movie Review: Exodus: Gods and Kings

The story of Moses is a familiar one. I remember the old TV movie The Ten Commandments playing every year as the back drop to my family celebrating Easter at my grandfather's house. Later, there was an animated adaptation, which I enjoyed watching. It had a very good soundtrack. So, I was quite surprised when, recently, my mother wanted us all to go out and see Exodus: Gods and Kings. If anyone knew the story of Moses inside and out, it was us. So why would we spend money to go and watch it again? I am going to tell you why.

This movie spends a lot of time focusing on Moses and Ramses II. Focusing on them as people, reacting to the situation that they have found themselves in. Two brothers in staunch opposition to one another. Personally, I like the take on Moses that this film presents. Here you have a man, raised Egyptian, a prince and general, farming goats. The entire movie, you see a push and pull relationship Moses has with God, which is very different from prior adaptations. Moses is normally shown as being very accepting from the moment he encounters God on the mountain.

This film makes the character of Moses feel more human to me. He struggles with putting away what he once had to transition into the leader of a people he barely knows. I also like the fact that the film creators chose to give a face to the voice of God, rather than making Him an invisible presence. A face gives the conversations an extra something that a disembodied voice cannot.

The only negative thing I have to say about this film is that there were sections that felt rushed. One scene in particular is where Ramses is talking to Miriam about Moses. There was little setup for that scene and I felt we were simply to accept what was happening because we knew it had to happen. We know there is a huge climatic ending and only 2 hours to get there. So, certain scenes have to happen in order to progress, no matter if they flow seamlessly into the story line or not.

Exodus: Gods and Kings is a good movie. It takes a familiar story and re-imagines it into something new and different than its predecessors. I enjoyed watching it.

I Am Number Four

So, I just saw this movie last night. It was a toss up between this and "Unknown" (which I hope to see very soon). Going into it, I was a little worried about it was going to turn out. It had potential to be very very bad. The only actors I recognized were Timothy Olyphant and the guy from lost who shot Ben's daughter. Oh yeah, and he played The Blob on the Wolverine movie.


There was the high school stereotypes that were thrown in there and I personally could have done without it. However, I have no idea if that was in the book or not. If it was, then I can't really blame the movie for that. Those played out rather predictably, but it wasn't enough to spoil the movie for me. I suppose it gave a little bit of a Smallville vibe, in that here is this powerful alien who has to act human. He is powerful, but has to allow himself to be bullied around because he can't use his powers.


I couldn't help but ask questions about stuff that was totally irrelevant to the story. Such as, how much money was paid in order to see the AT&T logo on John's iPhone? (my brain just works like that) Or how come John doesn't have some sort of weapon by the time all the fighting went down? Only so much you can do with glowing hands.


I did find myself getting a little impatient about how long it was taking to get to the fight with John and the people hunting him down. But that fight was definitely worth the wait. Michael Bay, if you are reading this, I <3 U. Oh that fight was great.


So now I want to go and read the book and see all the things that movie left out. All in all, I liked the movie (though it seems many critics didn't) blonde haired protagonist and all.