A.C.’s Review: Moses
reborn as a 1980’s action hero…and it works! Okay calling him a full
blown action hero might be a bit of an exaggeration but this Moses
played by Christian
Bale isn’t the old man most picture when thinking of the biblical
Moses. This is a Moses who as a general in the Pharaoh’s army is in the
prime of his life and more than adept on the battlefield swinging a
golden hilted sword and making moves like upsetting
a chariot with the throw of a spear. In other words forget Charlton
Heston…this is a Moses for the modern movie audience.
The
movie follows the skeleton of the Moses story from the bible. Moses, a
Hebrew placed with the Egyptian Royal family as a baby becomes a prince
of Egypt raised
along the Pharaoh’s son Rameses as brothers until the day his true
heritage is discover and Moses is exiled. Eventually returning to Egypt
to free the future Israelites from slavery and lead them to the promised
land.
Directed
by Ridley (ALIEN) Scott his movie is gorgeously shot. Sweeping vistas
of ancient Egypt, with Pyramids and statues being built, the Nile and
the Red Sea…all
amazingly recreated. None of the CGI looks remotely fake. The best part
of all this is that there is an interesting story with compelling
characters. What I liked best was that Scott presents Rameses as a
somewhat sympathetic character for someone holding
a group of people enslaved. It would have been easy to make him a one
note, cartoon villain but that is not the case here. In fact there is
kind of a reverse of the Thor/Loki relationship from the MARVEL movies.
Here the Pharaoh clearly seems to love and
admire Moses more than his own natural son and it is not lost on
Rameses.
Thanks
to Rameses being a more rounded character its hard not to feel
something for him as God unleashes horrible plagues of doom on Egypt in
an attempt to get
Rameses to free the slaves. Again the special effects of swarms of
locusts, flies and their like were so well done you could feel the
misery of the people.
Not
being an overly religious person I couldn’t help but to wonder if the
New Testament came about as an answer to the God presented here from the
Old Testament.
The almighty we see here doesn’t exactly inspire anyone to fall to
their knees and worship. Being a visitor to movie message boards a lot
of viewers are basically equating the death and destruction unleased
here on the innocent Egyptians who had nothing to
do with enslaving people as what you would get if you gave divine
powers to Al Quida. God killing all the first born males was the climax
of the plaques and Rameses who has lost his beloved baby even calls
Moses out on how he can follow a god who did what
he did. It’s pretty heavy stuff.
The movie for all practical purposes concludes at the Red Sea and it’s an exciting climax.
The
movie only stumbles in a couple places. Aaron Paul of BREAKING BAD and
Sigourney Weaver of ALIEN I was surprised to find out afterwards were in
the movie but
hidden under their makeup I failed to recognize them and it’s pretty
clear that their story arcs must have ended up on the cutting room floor
as they are barely in the movie. Also I didn’t care for the period of
the movie where Moses in in exile and falls
in love and has a family. The courtship is so rushed and little
represented that it’s laughable but I guess most movies feel obligated
to tack on a love story.
In
conclusion this was a biblical epic done right as opposed to NOAH which
I would put in contention as one of the top 5 worst films of 2014.
Best Scene: Incredible scene of the Pharaoh’s army losing half its forces as
they race across the mountains to catch Moses and the fleeing slaves
and fall victim
to an avalanche. Amazing effects!
A.C.’s Rating: Full Price Ticket
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