Exodus: God and Kings

Religion will never be a thing to ask me about. Sure, I went to church and also Sunday school but once I hit my teen years especially my sophomore year, I found life to be more rewarding by just going with the flow and doing my own practices. Still, as a person who wears a cross everyday and who still follows the guidelines from my church days, I can't say I don't have some religion in me.

The new religion-based film released during December 2014 is Exodus: Gods and Kings. Following the story from the Bible, Moses, the prince and later prophet tries to stand up to the pharaoh Ramses (Joel Edgerton) to try to free many slaves while the plagues surround the city of Memphis, Egypt.  

The biggest thing to take away from this religion-based film is that's it's hard to get a type of feel for Moses. Christian Bale's presence on the screen has never been warm and fluffy through the years. Playing Moses, Bale puts this character in the middle and he is frankly not likable or unlikable. Still, Moses is a character you will be interested in by his actions. The acting is good and he forms a love story with Zipporah (Maria Valverde) which literally starts in the middle of the desert which turns into a battle story and also a story of man turning and becoming powerful. The plot has a lot to it and the film knows how to work with all it's elements. Moses is a more interesting character than Ramses who has a silly look with strange makeup and Edgerton really come nowhere close to bringing out this character like Bale does with Moses.

Unlike the other Christian film of 2014 Heaven is for Real, a film really all about plot, Exodus is made to showcase it's visual images. From costume design, to design of Egyptian cities and to it's most powerful scene of the parting of the sea in its last act, maybe the only reason to see this film is because of these images. These are the type of images that seem to come from director Ridley Scott who's made similar films like this including Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven.

While being banned in some countries for being allegedly inaccurate, my date who I took to this movie complained that the story isn't completely accurate. This is also a girl with a religious background. Due to that, I see don't most of the Christian audience appreciating this movie. Still, for a non-target audience member like myself who only saw it because my girlfriend wanted to, I was still plenty and pleasantly surprised. So far, Exodus: God and Kings is my favorite religious film of 2014 which was a year where we got a lot of them.    


3.5/5