Ridley Scott makes several interesting choices in Exodus: Gods and Kings. God is a British child in this epic remake, calling to mind CS Lewis’ statement that children want justice and adults want mercy. Impatient, single-minded, lacking perspective on the victims, the god of the Exodus story has the elemental qualities of a child, and Scott captures this characteristic with this impressive choice of image. And Scott’s decision creates an interesting relationship for Moses, who finds himself trying to create an adult perspective in god. This dynamic is quite a shift from the god-man relationship in DeMille’s 1956 epic
But of course, it’s the digital effects that are the main sell here. It’s easy to imagine that technological improvements were a big consideration in undertaking this remake, and the effects deliver. Scott uses the same narrative choices as his predecessor in not dwelling on all the individual plagues but compressing them and having Ramses dismiss them with scientific explanations. The water turns dramatically to blood, and the portrayal of dead fish, boils, frogs and lice is so visceral that we can almost sense them. The receding of the Red Sea is awe-inspiring here, especially in 3D.
But despite all these great elements, Scott’s Exodus drags mightily through its 2-1/2 hour run. Scott has clearly chosen to direct Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton as cyphers, and the result is that Exodus fails to engage the audience. As Scott’s tale winds from Moses’ Egyptian fall, his embrace of his Jewish heritage and his acting as god’s prophet, Bale leaves us feeling distant and uninvolved with any of Moses’ ambitions, disappointments, loves or doubts. That Bale’s Moses engages us significantly less than that of Charlton Heston is a testimony to Scott’s directorial decision, but wringing emotion and engagement out of Ramses and Moses does not serve the project well.
So for all the interesting embellishments and directions that Scott uses in this remake, when he replaces the characters of DeMille’s Ten Commandments with one-dimensional gods and kings of legend, he moves his film from audience engagement to declamation. And two-and-a-half hours of posturing is a lot to watch on the screen, even with great CGI and 3D.
