Mortal hero Bek teams with the god Horus in an alliance against Set, the merciless god of darkness who has usurped Egypt's throne, plunging the once peaceful and prosperous empire into chaos and conflict.
From Rotten Tomatoes:
MOVIE INFO
In this spectacular action-adventure inspired by the classic mythology of Egypt, the survival of mankind hangs in the balance as an unexpected mortal hero Bek [Brenton Thwaites] undertakes a thrilling journey to save the world and rescue his true love. In order to succeed, he must enlist the help of the powerful god Horus [Nikolaj Coster-Waldau] in an unlikely 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. As their breathtaking battle against Set and his henchmen takes them into the afterlife and across the heavens, both god and mortal must pass tests of courage and sacrifice if they hope to prevail in the epic final confrontation.more
Rating: PG-13 (for fantasy violence and action, and some sexuality)
Directed By: Alex Proyas
Written By: Burk Sharpless, Matt Sazama
Runtime: 2 hr. 7 min.
Lionsgate - Official Site
TOMATOMETER: No critic reviews yet...
WANT TO SEE 92% want to see
User Ratings: 18,541
GODS OF EGYPT OPENS IN THE US ON THE 26th OF FEBRUARY AND IN MALAYSIA ON THE 25th OF FEBRUARY. FOR EVERYWHERE ELSE FIND OUT HERE.
The city where the ancient Egyptian Gods lived. No sand in sight. ©Lionsgate
From the director that gave you The Crow, Dark City and I, Robot comes Egyptian SuperGods...
So Gods of Egypt, the story of how Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) the ancient Egyptian God of the sky, war and hunting who on his coronation day loses everything to his uncle Set (Gerard Butler) the ancient Egyptian God of the desert, storms, disorder, violence and foreigners. And with the help of a young mortal Bek (Brenton Thwaites) Horus tries to reclaim his rightful place and in return Bek will get the love of his life Zaya (Courtney Eaton) back from the afterlife.
Inspired by The Contendings of Horus and Seth a mythological story from the Twentieth dynasty of Ancient Egypt found in the first sixteen pages of the Papyrus Chester Beatty I, but what you see on screen is nothing like you've ever seen before.
Let's start with the story, basically a revenge story with a side of reuniting with a lost love it's pretty straightforward. Nothing overly complicated about the plot. Horus goes from the young soon to be king playboy to a defeated man to a man looking for revenge who on the way becomes a better man. Set intent on shaping the world to his liking destroys everything in his path and takes everything he can to make himself powerful. Bek the young mortal thief plays Horus's conscience who at the same time loses the love of his life and will do anything, even make a deal with Horus, in order to get her back among the living. The straight forward story is predictable. The dialogue somewhat simplistic and the expositions delivered without anything that would confuse an audience looking for a visual feast and not a story worth investing oneself in.
This is Horus, the Falcon-headed god of the sky. The falcon head only appears when he conjures up his armour. ©Lionsgate
Let's start with the story, basically a revenge story with a side of reuniting with a lost love it's pretty straightforward. Nothing overly complicated about the plot. Horus goes from the young soon to be king playboy to a defeated man to a man looking for revenge who on the way becomes a better man. Set intent on shaping the world to his liking destroys everything in his path and takes everything he can to make himself powerful. Bek the young mortal thief plays Horus's conscience who at the same time loses the love of his life and will do anything, even make a deal with Horus, in order to get her back among the living. The straight forward story is predictable. The dialogue somewhat simplistic and the expositions delivered without anything that would confuse an audience looking for a visual feast and not a story worth investing oneself in.
The actors. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays Set the god of the sky who goes up against uncle Set played by Gerard Butler. Not the first time Coster-Waldau has played the young heir who's ascension is interrupted nor is it the first time he's played one who is maimed. Gerard Butler also seems to have an affinity for playing characters from a certain genre since he was in 300 (2006). Both of them do a decent enough job with their characters but somewhat limited in my opinion given the dialogue they had which sounded a little too simple to me. Brenton Thwaites who plays Bek and Courtney Eaton as Zaya do a decent enough job considering their experience. The other main characters you'll see are Ra played by Geoffrey Rush and Elodie Yung who plays Hathor the Goddess of Love. Geoffrey Rush seems to be having fun with his role while Elodie Yung didn't really impress me.
This is Set his uncle. Lord of the desert. His human armour looks a little like his Spartan one doesn't it? ©Lionsgate
The overall impression I got from the story, dialogue and cast was something akin to a Disney movie. Brenton's character made me think of Disney's Aladdin who goes through all sorts of things to save his love, he not only looks like him he almost sounds like him. Set sort of looks like Hercules also another animation by Disney. And with the simple dialogue it really made me think and feel like I was watching a live-action version mash-up of a Disney film. Didn't help that Rufus Sewell looked like Jafar and Chadwick Boseman's Thoth acting felt like it would also fit perfectly in a Disney animation. It felt weird.
The visuals. Pretty elaborate production from physical sets to the graphics to the costume design. The physical sets were quite something to see but the CGI elements were a mix of impressive to something that would only be acceptable in a movie from a few years ago. It sort of ruined the moment.
That little person is Bek, Horus's human sidekick. Manages to keep up with Horus pretty well. ©Lionsgate
As usual I went into this film knowing very little about it other than what I saw in the trailers. When I saw the trailers I sort of had a feeling I was in for something along the lines of The Mummy (1999) a film that would liberally take from the myths and legends of ancient Egypt and try to weave a fun action movie, this was almost that. It was a movie that didn't know whether it wanted to be serious or to be lighthearted and that made it hard to really get into. The film makers drew a lot from the stories and characters of ancient Egypt which I personally find to be incredibly fascinating but what they then did to them, which is to turn them into Marvel-like superheroes it sort of lost its appeal for me. It did look good and was cool for a while but when gods can suddenly suit-up in IronMan suits and then had city destroying battles the charm was gone. The movie became just another clone of the three act story structure mastered by the folks at Marvel and Disney. The only difference being that the superhero and villain are gods.
Overall this movie is a typical action movie, if you've watched all the Marvel movies and liked them you might find this enjoyable. There's lots of eye-candy but your brain won't be overtaxed by the story. I'm giving this film an average score or maybe just a little under that. 2.8 out of 5. An unusual way to be introduce to the stories found in the writings of ancient Egypt...
And yes I did notice the whitewashing in the cast from the first trailer but I'll let other review bring that up and discuss it.
Here's a couple of trailers for you to enjoy.
GODS OF EGYPT IS DISRIBUTED IN MALAYSIA BY TGV PICTURES SO HEAD ON OVER TO TGV.COM.MY TO GET YOUR TICKETS!
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