Gods Of Egypt

Gods of Egypt is a visually stunning fantasy film that teeters on the edge of being campy.

The trailers for this film set high expectations, promising a story of the mythical, god-like beings that come from Egyptian lore. But they also raised questions: would the story keep in tune with common mythos, or branch out into a whole new realm?

With Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau taking the lead, along with 300’s Gerard Butler, the film starts off in a beautiful, ancient Egypt, ruled over by Osiris and his Queen. Horus, Osiris’s son (Coster- Waldau), is ready to assume the crown, but Set (Butler), brother to Osiris, has other plans. He feels scorned for having to live in the desert, and decides it is his time to rule all of Egypt. He murders Osiris, but leaves Horus alive, taking his eyes instead of his life.

Enter a thief, who wants to rescue his beloved from the clutches of Set’s architect (Rufus Sewell). The love of his life somehow talks him into rallying a dejected Horus to fight Set.

All the gods of Egypt are represented in some form or fashion, even if in minor capacity.

The gods have the ability to morph into larger, more powerful beings. They are nigh invincible, but still age, and die. They pray to Ra, god of the sun and grandfather to Horus.

This two-hour movie is filled to the brim with star-power, and superb acting. The special effects are a sight to behold, and they instill a sense of wonderment. The adventure is grand indeed, and will certainly leave you entertained.

That said, the script is sub-par. There are moments where emotional lines could be delivered, but aren’t. This is not from lack of trying on the part of the actors; the writers simply failed to find the proper words. In these moments, there was laughter from the audience at my viewing — during scenes clearly not meant for humor. This is the precarious knife-edge the movie walks between greatness and campy.

I’ve read several articles about how moviegoers are upset at the very Caucasian-looking cast. I shared this sentiment, to a certain degree. It seemed odd that a movie about a specific time and place in history made little effort to be ethnically accurate.

In the end, I let it go. The movie’s lore turned out to be so far from a real-world tie in that it no longer mattered. It was clear this was some sort of alternate universe; one of the major plot holes is a lack of connection to planet Earth.

If you can divorce yourself from some of these elements, you can really enjoy the film for what it is.

My screener companion said he didn’t care for the graphics, because they were obviously fake. I experienced this movie using animated films as my frame of reference, and that made it easier to watch. It is also clearly a High Fantasy film.

In summary: great acting is the glue that holds this film together. Without that talent, it wouldn’t stand up. It is, however, worth seeing if you love fantasy films. You will be entertained, for sure.

3.5 out 5 stars

Second Review By Jeniffer Gomez

When I was asked to review this movie I was really excited, I was expecting a mix between the action scenes and the special effects from The Mummy, 300 and Clash of the Titans, and of course having Gerald Butler as an evil God, a production budget of $140 million and an Egyptian mythology theme sounded great, so If your expectations are similar to mine, let me tell you that you might be a little disappointed.

The film begins when the great god Osiris decides to bestow his crown upon his beloved son Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), Horus’ peevish Uncle, the merciless god of darkness (Gerard Butler), shows up. He thinks the throne should go to him. He kills the king and queen and plucks out Horus’ eyes. Set usurps Egypt’s throne and plunges the prosperous empire into chaos and conflict.

Hoping to save the world and rescue his true love, who was killed by one of Set’s minions, a defiant thief mortal named Bek (Brenton Thwaites) forms an unlikely alliance with the powerful god Horus, who is living in exile, to fight Set and restore the peace. Their battle against Set and his henchmen takes them into the afterlife and across the heavens for an epic confrontation.

The movie’s idea is that in ancient Egypt, deities once walked among the mortals. They were 12-feet tall and they bled molten gold, and each one has a specific magical power, but other than that they were just like us.

The idea of the film is actually interesting but with the characters be surrounded by the most excessive yet unimpressive special effects in years is really distracting, a bunch of bad fake accents, not a great script and really poor performances including the one from the Box office star Gerald Butler, make this movie an inevitable flop.

Hey but not everything is bad, I really enjoyed Toth (Chadwick Boseman) the father of mathematics, astronomy, the god of wisdom. He is the only black actor in the film, but some people might say his role just played into the African American stereotype, but I think he was great, really sharp jokes, funny and his comebacks were outstanding, I enjoyed his performance though he doesn’t participate in the majority of the film he ended up playing a big role in the plot. He is, definitely, livelier than the rest of the cast,

But at the end of the film I was incredibly shocked because we heard some people clapping, I was silently mouthing the words: Really People???, but everyone enjoy different things, and It has to be recognized that the studio put a lot of effort and spent millions in marketing with ads plastered up everywhere. The studio hopes for a huge hit and a possible franchise, but I highly doubt it happens, I believe they had a great idea but they didn’t make a good job bring it to live.

2.5-5

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Chris Daniels

Gods Of Egypt

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Chris Daniels