With the Oscars about to air, it seems nearly everyone is talking about whether or not minority groups are underrepresented in Hollywood. And while I’d rather not get into an overly political discussion about race, ethics and the film industry, I will say it does seem like non-white roles usually end up in the hands of white actors. Gods of Egypt falls perfectly into the category of “movies about non-white people that prominently feature white actors” and I found myself constantly reminded of that throughout my screening of the movie. The three lead male actors are from Australia, Denmark and Scotland, each meant to be playing an ancient Egyptian god or slave. And, because the movie was so uninspired and sloppy, I found my mind drifting to this fact every few seconds. Would the movie have been much better with Egyptian actors? No, that wouldn’t have changed the biggest issues the film has. However, Hollywood’s seemingly endless chain of pushing out non-white actors in roles they are meant to play was quite apparent as I watched this film.
All of this aside, the movie was still a poor attempt at creating a flashy and over-the-top action epic. The movie follows a slave named Bek (Brenton Thwaites of The Giver), who tries to help Egyptian god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of Game of Thrones) regain the throne from the evil god Set (Gerard Butler of 300). Set means to use the best qualities of each of the gods to destroy the underworld and completely conquer death, becoming immortal and holding his place at the throne forever. As you can probably tell just by reading this description, there is little depth to be found here. The story is paper-thin, essentially a backdrop for lavish and extravagant action sequences.
The action sequences, unfortunately, do not save the film from its barely existent story. While some the scenes of over-the-top swordplay and action are shot in an interesting (sometimes even witty) manner, the horrendous special effects make them almost unwatchable. The CGI is putrid, the kind of stuff I would expect to see out of an action film in 2006. Actually, this is not really fair to action films of 2006. 300, a film that Gods of Egypt seems to be trying to remind people of by casting Gerard Butler as an ancient warlord, had far better special effects than this film, and it came out almost a decade ago. When your spectacle action film that features many large creatures which can only be created with CGI doesn’t have great special effects, it feels as though you are watching a bunch of actors flailing at each other on a set with a bunch of green screens.
And that’s about all there is to discuss. This movie brings nothing to the table other than the promise of interesting and fun action sequences, and fails to deliver on that front. The only thing keeping the movie afloat is the banter between Bek and Horus, which occasionally results in some pretty fun dialogue. Unfortunately, their relationship doesn’t make up for the rest of the movies faults. The movie ends up being extremely lackluster, and not worth any audience member’s time.
Grade: C-
All of this aside, the movie was still a poor attempt at creating a flashy and over-the-top action epic. The movie follows a slave named Bek (Brenton Thwaites of The Giver), who tries to help Egyptian god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of Game of Thrones) regain the throne from the evil god Set (Gerard Butler of 300). Set means to use the best qualities of each of the gods to destroy the underworld and completely conquer death, becoming immortal and holding his place at the throne forever. As you can probably tell just by reading this description, there is little depth to be found here. The story is paper-thin, essentially a backdrop for lavish and extravagant action sequences.
The action sequences, unfortunately, do not save the film from its barely existent story. While some the scenes of over-the-top swordplay and action are shot in an interesting (sometimes even witty) manner, the horrendous special effects make them almost unwatchable. The CGI is putrid, the kind of stuff I would expect to see out of an action film in 2006. Actually, this is not really fair to action films of 2006. 300, a film that Gods of Egypt seems to be trying to remind people of by casting Gerard Butler as an ancient warlord, had far better special effects than this film, and it came out almost a decade ago. When your spectacle action film that features many large creatures which can only be created with CGI doesn’t have great special effects, it feels as though you are watching a bunch of actors flailing at each other on a set with a bunch of green screens.
And that’s about all there is to discuss. This movie brings nothing to the table other than the promise of interesting and fun action sequences, and fails to deliver on that front. The only thing keeping the movie afloat is the banter between Bek and Horus, which occasionally results in some pretty fun dialogue. Unfortunately, their relationship doesn’t make up for the rest of the movies faults. The movie ends up being extremely lackluster, and not worth any audience member’s time.
Grade: C-
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