Gods of Egypt Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Gods of  Egypt
Year: 2016
Director: Alex Proyas
Country: US
Language: English

Epic film is a style of filmmaking with large scale, sweeping scope, and spectacle. The usage of the term has shifted over time, sometimes designating a film genre and at other times simply synonymous with big budget filmmaking. Ben Hur is a memorable epic; it has grand chase scenes, thousands of extras, an extremely large budget, lavish costumes, expansive sets and an extravagant musical score. Gods of Egypt is no Ben Hur. 

Mortal hero Bek (Brenton Thwaites) teams with the god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in an alliance against Set (Gerard Butler) , the merciless god of darkness, who has usurped Egypt's throne, plunging the once peaceful and prosperous empire into chaos and conflict.

The $140 million budget makes the production of this crap seem like a Shakespearean tragedy. Who thought this was a good idea? It's a sword and sandal "epic" that has no established audience or source material and made with no talent. The script is abysmal, the plotting is a joke and the special effects make The Mummy (1999) look like a James Cameron production in comparison.  This would make a good B-movie companion to Jason and the Argonauts (1963) but is complete trash compared to ANYTHING made nowadays. 

Worse yet it's a film set in Egypt that avoids even a basic attempt to fit into that time period. It features an all white cast, which is poor timing considering the Oscar controversy. Never has a green screen been so obvious in a movie. The ill-fated camerawork exposes the clear distinction between the actors and their backdrops, most of it assembled with computers. Cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr. tries his best to make the film seem appealing, but ultimately the sand-dusted washes of yellow and orange, look shallow. 

Gods of Egypt is a good example of how reliance on machinery eats away at a picture's heart. There is nothing really "human" about this supposed epic. Real talent is wasted in favor of cookie cutter Hollywood trash that serves only to make money. At this point it's doubtful that this production will even break even.