Released: February 2016
Director: Alex Proyas
Run Time: 126 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Composer: Marco Beltrami
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Cast:
Nikaloj-Coster Waldau: Horus
Brenton Thwaites: Bek
Chadwick Boseman: Thoth
Gerard Butler: Set
Courtney Eaton: Zaya
Elodie Yung: Hathor
Rufus Sewell: Urshu
Bryan Brown: Osiris
Geoffrey Rush: Ra
I love mythology of all types and countries. These ancient stories that helped that helped the older civilizations try to explain the world around them were extremely imaginative and incredibly epic. Greek, Norse, Chinese, Hindu, and even Christian mythology all have some incredibly wonderful and amazing stories to be told. With Greek myths, we got stories of Hercules, Perseus, Zeus and the other Greek gods of Olympus. With Norse mythology, you had Thor, Loki, Odin, and Valhalla. It was epic, but boy was it dark and extremely apocalyptic. Now, I’ve read up on some of these myths when I was younger, but one of the cultures that I missed was Egypt. I’ve seen some pretty complicated myths, but Egyptian mythology is extraordinary complicated. You have a lot of gods including Anubis, Ra, Set, Horus, Osiris, Hathor, Thoth and an entire pantheon of ancient Egyptian stories. There is a LOT of stuff going on there. There have been many movies based on all sorts of mythology. Clash of the Titans is one of the most famous movies based on Greek mythology. You also have many movies based on Hercules. There’s a lot of material that you can work with. It’s also really easy to screw it up. When I first saw Gods of Egypt in February, I walked away fairly unimpressed, and a lot of other people felt the same way. I recently picked it up on Blu-Ray, so let’s see if it’s better the second time around.
In the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis, the Gods lived among mortals, but were several feet taller and had liquid gold for blood. Gods of Egypt opens as a young mortal, Bek, gets a five-finger discount on a green dress for his girlfriend, Zaya. Meanwhile, in the main palace, Horus is about to be crowned king of all Egypt by his father, Osiris. But before that can take place, Horus’s uncle, Set, shows up and murders Osiris. After defeating Horus, Set rips Horus’s eyes out and claims the kingdom for himself and enslaving the population. The story isn’t terrible, but it is very generic involving an evil god trying to rule the world. Haven’t seen that one before…at all. I don’t think the story would have bothered me so much if the rest of the movie didn’t feel so…..artificial.
I’m going to come right out and say it: Gods of Egypt is a special effects movie, through and through. It’s really hard to get invested in a movie like this when the thing is almost completely CGI. I’m not kidding. About 90 percent of the sets and backgrounds in the film are completely CG. The other ten percent are very small enclosed spaces that feel claustrophobic. I understand, if you’re going to try and show a fantasy version of ancient Egypt, you have to take some liberties and spruce things a bit. But the film-makers really went overboard with the CGI. It’s overload. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of it is extraordinarily beautiful, but you know its fake. If you’re going to try and sell a movie like this, you need to ground it a little bit in some kind of reality. Now, with mythology, that’s hard to do. I grant you that one. When Horus and Set transform into their actual god-form, it’s cool, but it is BLATANTLY obvious that it’s CG. It’s not good CG either. I’ve seen better CG in a PlayStation 2 game. What really bothers me about the visuals is that some of the CGI is absolutely fantastic. The demon, Apophis, is absolutely amazing. I loved it. I loved it when Ra battles the serpent and it’s not half-bad. As far as visual effects go, Gods of Egypt is an unfortunate mixed bag.
Let’s discuss the cast. Before Gods of Egypt was even released, it garnered a HUGE deal of controversy over the casting of the film. Why? They cast mostly white, non-Middle-Eastern actors in these roles. The rule of thumb when it comes to casting, is to cast the best person for the role, not necessarily because of what they look like. There are certain roles in certain movies that require a certain casting choice. You wouldn’t cast a white guy in the role of a black slave in a Civil War-era movie, that’s blatantly wrong. The thing is, a lot of Egyptians aren’t white. This is a film-making phenomenon called “white-washing.” Basically, you end up casting white folks in roles that were generally intended to be for other ethnicities. At one point, Alex Proyas actually apologized for that happening, but the damage was done. A lot of people stayed away. I’m going to tell you right now, from my personal opinion, the movie is actually not terribly miscast, except for Bryan Brown as Osiris. Really?! Certain actors simply don’t belong in movies like this. It was like Uwe Boll casting Burt Reynolds as a king in In The Name of the King. It’s incredibly mind-boggling. Gerard Butler was clearly having a great time as Set, and he really does look the part, aside from not having red hair, which the god was said to have in the actual myth. Chadwick Boseman was great as Thoth, the god of wisdom. He brings a dead-pan level of sarcasm and wit to the role which is genuinely funny. Brenton Thwaites is an up-and-comer and he’s actually not bad. I saw him in The Giver and he was actually pretty good. Elodie Yung is gorgeous as Hathor, but she’s not really given a whole lot to do. Overall, the casting isn’t bad, but the acting really needs work.
The movie isn’t boring, it moves at quite a brisk pace. The action is pretty solid and at least you can see what’s going on. But there’s really nothing here that’s overly memorable. Yeah, you’ve got the battle between Set and Horus at the beginning and the end of the film which is…there. The pyramid sequence is pretty spectacular with the whole Sphinx coming into play. That was pretty awesome. Ultimately, it’s all for naught, because this movie comes across as a cheap Clash of the Titans rip-off. Look, I happen to enjoy a lot of Alex Proyas’s work. The Crow, Dark City, I Robot, and Knowing are actually all really good. So this may be his first real flop, but that’s due to the pre-release crap that was going on with the casting and stuff like that. Overall, I don’t think Gods of Egypt is a terrible movie, it’s just terribly mediocre. Sometimes, that’s alright. But Gods of Egypt could have been such an incredibly epic film. It’s just disappointing that it’s an almost forgettable experience. My final verdict is a 6.5/10. It’s worth a rent, but not a whole lot more.