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Exodus: Gods and Kings Reviews

Ridley Scott has directed an entertaining and competent version of a story we all know and has imbued it with the “realism” with which we sweeten today's fantastic stories of yesteryear. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 2, 2024

The most essential element lacking from the production, beyond even its historically inaccurate cast, remains the film's inability to find a new or novel relevance for an audience who has heard this story countless times before.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 16, 2022

How so many talented people came together here and just so completely whiffed on one of the most incredible stories ever written is beyond me.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 10, 2021

Scott's film eschews all the Hollywood glam of DeMille's biblical epic. It's humanistic and so gritty you'll feel like taking a bath afterwards, but not in the Nile, which is turned a lurid blood red as one of the ten plagues.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Feb 2, 2021

Attempts to tell a famous tale with a rarely experimented, distinct realism, even though the most popular interpretations are mythical.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 4, 2020

It was very much pleasurable seeing all those buildings and ancient Egyptian construction work in such detail.

Full Review | Original Score: 6.5/10 | Nov 20, 2020

Even if we don't consider the racial problems in casting, the emotional motivations are flimsy at best. No amount of pretty visuals can mask clunky dialogue and thinly veiled characters.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 16, 2020

A film awash in dubious logic and problematic decisions.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Jul 7, 2020

Sadly, by the time we get to much of the action, it doesn't have any weight. Why build such a real world if you're not going to populate it with interesting people?

Full Review | Apr 15, 2020

[T]he visual spectacle is reason enough to see Exodus: Gods and Kings. [Dariusz] Wolski's imagery is also fueled by the production design of Arthur Max which is beyond impressive.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 14, 2019

Too solemn in its mighty grandeur, Scott's treatment seems already mummified.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 12, 2019

John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley add support in this sometimes campy and shallow, sometimes solemn, but mostly absorbing interpretation of the story of Moses.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2019

That the film's only exuberant display of cinematic prowess is reserved for an extended 30-minute sequence of God raining His wrath down on the ruling class won't be lost on viewers in the year 2014, which has seen so much racial injustice...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jul 16, 2019

Ridley Scott may be 77, but he's making films with the energy and ambition of a man half his age.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2019

Irónicamente, la ola de muerte levantada por las diez plagas le da algo de vida a la película, pero es algo meramente visual como ver el agua transformarse en sangre o a una manada de cocodrilos comerse entre sí.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/ 10 | Jan 19, 2019

It primarily seems to exist to host its excellent action sequences. Mainly, it's what most of us would expect, for better and worse.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 20, 2018

Even though all of the contrived melodrama and less than ardent acting, Scott's direction makes EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS a valuable piece of filmmaking

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Dec 8, 2018

Controversy and constant déjà-vus aside, the latest telling sure is gorgeous but can leave you feeling empty. Might be acceptable, if all you need is pretty sights.

Full Review | Oct 10, 2018

In terms of sheer scale, Ridley has succeeded in his endeavours.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 22, 2018

You'll feel like you're sitting through a boring sermon, delivered by somebody who had too much to drink the night before and just wants to go back to bed.

Full Review | May 23, 2018

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Movie Review: ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’

The times critic a. o. scott reviews “exodus: gods and kings.”.

By A.O. Scott

Dec. 11, 2014

Longer than the average Hollywood feature film and shorter than the average Passover Seder, “Exodus: Gods and Kings” tells the well-known story of how Moses led the enslaved Israelites out of bondage in Egypt. The timing of the movie’s release — a few days before Hanukkah — may be a bit puzzling, but it does provide a nice bookend for 2014. We had a blockbuster Sunday school lesson in March in the form of Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah,” and now we have Ridley Scott’s attempt to bring another famous chunk of the Hebrew Bible to life, in 3-D no less.

“Noah,” with its stone giants and Emma Watson, may have been too strange for some viewers. “Exodus,” by contrast, crowded with well-known actors, is nowhere near strange enough. More than anything else, it recalls the wide-screen, Technicolor biblical pageants of the 1950s and early ’60s, bland and solemn spectacles that invited moviegoers to marvel at their favorite stars in sandals and robes.

The casting of “Exodus,” with mostly American, British and Australian actors in Middle Eastern and African roles, has raised some eyebrows, and while these choices represent a failure of imagination and sensitivity, they are also consistent with that old, stale tradition. So is the curious decision to encourage the performers to speak in strange, geographically and historically preposterous accents.

The Egyptian oppressors, with their heavy eyeliner and clingy linen robes, festoon their highfalutin pseudo-Oxbridge speech patterns with lisps and sighs. (The script is credited to a squad of competent dramaturges, none of them, alas, named Oscar Wilde.) John Turturro as the relatively nice pharaoh is out-camped only by Ben Mendelsohn as a corrupt, mincing viceroy. Even the manly and muscular Joel Edgerton as the bad pharaoh, Ramses, tries to play along, caressing snakes, fluttering his lashes and gorging on crab legs. Such women as there are in the movie — if you doze off you might miss Sigourney Weaver, Hiam Abbass and Tara Fitzgerald — mostly stand around holding trays and pitchers while the men thunder and hiss.

Strangest of all is Christian Bale as Moses, raised in the Egyptian royal court as a brother to Ramses and blind to his true heritage. Eventually, of course, Moses discovers his Jewish roots, which means that he stops shaving, starts herding goats and, unless my ears deceive me, takes to peppering his speech with stagy old-man Yiddish inflections, as though preparing to lead his people from the fleshpots of Egypt into a borscht belt Canaan. You think this desert is dry? You should try my wife’s brisket.

Alas, Mr. Scott is not Mel Brooks . “Exodus” is ludicrous only by accident, which isn’t much fun and is the surest sign of what we might call a New Testament sensibility at work. But the movie isn’t successfully serious, either. Not for the first time, Mr. Scott confuses excessive scale with authentic grandeur, and while some of the battle scenes have a rousing, kinetic sweep, there are far too many slow aerial surveys of Memphis, the Egyptian capital, a city bristling with columns and other priapic monuments.

To be fair, there is some good stuff here, too. Mr. Scott is a sinewy storyteller and a connoisseur of big effects. He turns the 10 plagues into a science-fiction apocalypse and stages the climactic pursuit of the Hebrews by the Egyptian army with the thundering precision of a cavalry battle in a John Ford western. (The parting of the Red Sea, unfortunately, is a digital washout.) But in the past, this director has also shown a knack for intimacy and intensity, for moments of feeling that stand out amid the fight-and-flight adrenaline rushes. Think of the eerie quiet of “Alien,” the whispery enigmas of “Blade Runner” or the loose, raw humor of “Thelma & Louise.”

That was a long time ago, and the committee-written script of “Exodus” has little room for the human dimensions of the story, which contains some of the most psychologically complex episodes in the Torah. The movie does provide a brief interlude of romance and domesticity, when Moses, stopping at an oasis, catches the eye of a kohl-eyed beauty with a blue tattoo on her lip. That would be Zipporah, whose tribe he joins for a while. They have a son, and Moses teaches him to throw a baseball — technically I guess you’d have to call it a rock — before destiny calls him away.

And when it does, “Exodus” becomes, briefly, an interesting movie. The biblical book of the same title tells two entwined stories. One is an epic of national liberation and self-assertion, in which the Israelites discover a political identity and begin to organize themselves as a people. The other is a kind of love story, about the often contentious relationship between the Israelites and their god, who is a complicated literary character, by turns compassionate and stern, steadfast and fickle. He and Moses don’t always get along.

In Mr. Scott’s film, God appears to Moses in the person of a young boy ( Isaac Andrews ), a bold and in some ways genuinely radical choice. His spooky, icy voice urges Moses toward extremism — a reversal of Mr. Aronofsky’s rendering of Genesis, in which Noah’s fanaticism goes beyond the divine mandate — for reasons that Moses is unable to understand. He wants to help free his people, but he also feels a residual kinship with Ramses, a bond that must be severed completely. His military insurgency is not enough.

While it lasts, though, “Exodus” has the makings of a provocative study of power, rebellion and loyalty. To paraphrase a Passover song, that would have been enough. What we get instead is both woefully insufficient and much too much.

“Exodus: Gods and Kings” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Blood, wild beasts, flies, boils, frogs, locusts, cattle disease, fire, darkness, death of the firstborn.

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Exodus: gods and kings, common sense media reviewers.

Moody Biblical battle epic about Moses is gory and dull.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Moses overcomes enormous challenges, solves proble

Moses is usually a clear hero, but in this version

Heavy fantasy-style action violence. Gruesome &quo

A married couple kisses; sex is indicated.

The pharaoh appears to drink wine with his meals.

Positive Messages

Moses overcomes enormous challenges, solves problems, and learns empathy. But some of the messages get muddled/conflicted in the movie's action sequences and because of parts of the story that were cut out.

Positive Role Models

Moses is usually a clear hero, but in this version he seems uneasy with God's help, and the use of the seven plagues seems rather gruesome. (You almost feel sorry for the bad guys.) He can also be violent and sullen and quarrelsome. Still, he's heroic enough to rescue hundreds of thousands of slaves and bring them a new life and new freedom.

Violence & Scariness

Heavy fantasy-style action violence. Gruesome "seven plagues," with strong terror, blood, death, destruction, and chaos. Fighting. Lots of blood and death. Dead children. Dead bodies. Bird entrails. Dead horses. Slave whipping. Several people hanged. Falling from cliff. Tidal wave and drowning.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Exodus: Gods and Kings is an epic retelling of the Biblical story of Moses freeing the Jewish slaves from the evil Egyptian pharaohs. There's lots of gruesome violence, particularly in the depiction of the seven plagues, with shocking amounts of blood, death, destruction, chaos, and terror. Dead children and animals are seen. There's also lots of fighting, hangings, slaves being whipped, and a terrifying tidal wave. On the other hand, sex and drinking/drugs are minimal, and language and consumerism aren't an issue. The film has drawn some criticism for "whitewashing" history by casting Caucasian actors in the roles of Middle Eastern characters. Teens who are on the fence about seeing a Biblical epic may be swayed by the movie's action factor, and Moses' story is still there -- and still worth telling and discussing, even though he's not portrayed as a saintly hero. But kids and tweens are strongly warned away; stick with either The Ten Commandments or The Prince of Egypt instead. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

Parents say (14)
Kids say (25)

Based on 14 parent reviews

Just typical violence

This is the best movie in that decade, what's the story.

As kids, Moses and Rhamses grew up together in the palace of Rhamses' father ( John Turturro ). As adults, Rhamses ( Joel Edgerton ) rules Egypt, with Moses ( Christian Bale ) as his trusted counsel. While inspecting a division of Jewish slaves, a wise man ( Ben Kingsley ) informs Moses that he, too, is Jewish. When Rhamses finds out, Moses is banished. He meets and marries Sefora (Maria Valverde) and starts life anew ... until God contacts him (in the form of a boy) and tells him that he must free the 600,000 people enslaved under the pharaoh. God assists by sending seven deadly plagues, but then Moses must lead the people across the Red Sea and into the promised land.

Is It Any Good?

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS has a somber, dreary quality, punctuated by a thrumming, droning music score. Director Ridley Scott has made some great films, but he seems drawn to huge battle epics, like Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood , which he doesn't seem particularly suited to. The mood of this film doesn't invite anything in the way of an emotional or spiritual connection.

Nor does it allow many of the actors much of anything to do. Bale is both serious and battle-ready, and several other recognizable actors appear as window dressing. Only Edgerton as Rhamses brings a little heart to his under-confident villain. Some choices, such as God appearing as a creepy kid, are simply strange. Only the plagues sequence offers a kind of distraction, but even that quickly turns disturbingly dark. Earlier Moses films ( The Ten Commandments , The Prince of Egypt , etc.) were at least campy or funny, but this one isn't even entertaining.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Exodus: Gods and Kings ' violence , especially during the "seven plagues" sequence. Does the movie go too far, or is this violence necessary to convey the movie's story and themes?

Is Moses a hero in this story? What does he achieve? What does he learn? Is he a role model ?

What's the appeal of Biblical epics like this one? What is the Moses story about, ultimately?

Why do you think the filmmakers choose to show God as a child? Is God fair? Wise? Cruel? What is his motivation in freeing the slaves?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 12, 2014
On DVD or streaming : March 17, 2015
Cast : Christian Bale , Joel Edgerton , Ben Kingsley
Director : Ridley Scott
Inclusion Information : Indian/South Asian actors
Studio : Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : History
Run time : 150 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : violence including battle sequences and intense images
Last updated : January 12, 2024

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IMAGES

EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS Review
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Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
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Exodus: Gods and Kings

VIDEO

Exodus Gods and Kings Movie Errors Part 1
Exodus: Gods and Kings Featurette
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) Movie Summarized in Hindi/Urdu
Exodus Gods and Kings
Exodus Gods and Kings Movie Errors Part 2
REVIEW FILM EXODUS GODS AND KINGS PART 3 #exodus #alurceritafilm #rekomendasifilm #spoiler #shorts

COMMENTS

Exodus: Gods and Kings
Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 10, 2021. Richard Crouse Richard Crouse. Scott's film eschews all the Hollywood glam of DeMille's biblical epic. It's humanistic and so gritty you'll feel ...
‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’: Ridley Scott’s Biblical Drama
Exodus: Gods And Kings. Directed by Ridley Scott. Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy. PG-13. 2h 30m. By A.O. Scott. Dec. 11, 2014. Longer than the average Hollywood feature film and shorter than ...
Exodus: Gods and Kings Movie Review
EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS has a somber, dreary quality, punctuated by a thrumming, droning music score. Director Ridley Scott has made some great films, but he seems drawn to huge battle epics, like Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood, which he doesn't seem particularly suited to. The mood of this film doesn't invite anything in the way of an ...