Action / Adventure
Sir Ridley Scott is one of the most experienced and reliable directors working today and he deserves our eternal respect for having made classics like “Blade Runner,” “Alien” and “Gladiator.” It is undeniable latter ‘Exodus’ follows in the footsteps of: a Old Testament tales retold as an action packed “sword and sandals” -epos, with a price tag of $ 160 million. As with “Noah” director Darren Aronofsky is simply not Sir Ridley some believing man and as an atheist he is most interested in this story potential for spectacular scenes. He has already come in rough weather to have possessed roles with white actors, but it’s not as if he portrays historical facts here.
“Exodus” makes some halfhearted attempt to provide miracles logical explanations, but this is primarily an imaginative robber story – which we unfortunately have heard so many times before. It says its that Christian Bale is not even the first Batman actor who interprets the role (it was Val Kilmer in “Prince of Egypt”), but he is at least the first is not a singing cartoon. This interpretation of the legend of the prince, prophet and lawgiver Moses follows the same structure as “Gladiator”: where the roles of Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix and Richard Harris is replaced by Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton and John Turturro.
The former is Moses, who after paddling trip in the Ra growing up in the court of Pharaoh Seti (John Turturro), together with the arrogant heir Ramses (Joel Edgerton). Both have an appropriate agnostic relative to the Egyptian gods and religious superstition. But everything changes after Ramses assumes the throne, and discovers that Moses really of Jewish slaveherkomst. While Ramses is becoming more familiar with the idea of being a living god, the Moses ostracized – and he spends the next few years as a farmer and family man. After getting a good slap skull comes Moses suddenly in contact with God, looking at the burning bush and finds his prophetic calling.
Whether he acts on behalf of higher powers or suffer from a serious brain injury is open to interpretation, but whatever the reason accomplishes Moses huge thing. He goes to full guerrilla war against Ramses to free his people, while he develops into a mixture of Bin Laden and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The most interesting of the recent religious films is that they treat the biblical stories about the same way as the mythological tales in other outdated belief systems – and not so far away how such the Greek gods were treated in “Troy” and “Clash of the Titans. ”
Possibly a little progress in our collective attitude to primitive superstition, but it does not in itself “Exodus” to a more successful film. Technically, this is a solid production, and Ridley Scott is at home during the epic battle scenes. He is considerably thinner ice when it comes to breathing life into the characters, and adds not this familiar story any more than grand spectacle and digital special effects. 3D format feels completely unnecessary in a film like this (Moses – now in three dimensions!), But Scott does anyway experience supple. Without visual problems, “ghosting” or splitting headache, and rather powerful after locust swarms coming.
To liven up the ten plagues Scott plus a few extra, including bloodthirsty giant crocodiles. There are several miscalculations here, not least in what Scott chose to focus on. We’ll see very little of suffering among the lord’s chosen people, while the more of the time devoted to Moses’ wife Zipporah bouncy (the Spanish beauty Maria Valverde). The iconic Charlton Heston – currently with stone tablets and sacrificial calf is barely touched – and the timeframe is properly balmy. Towards the end becomes Moses around eighty years older of two minutes, and that he claimed the Bible was about 80 years old when the desert journey started hopping Scott nonchalant over. For all its whimsical decisions, Scott has made a disappointing regular film, which so desperately need some more of the creative madness “Noah.”
Some of these problems are due possibly that the film is trimmed drastically down on the cutting table; Ridley Scott’s complete version is a half hour longer than the one we now see at the cinema. The tight editing goes worse off Sigourney Weavers Tuya, who disappears without a trace out of the film for a few lines, and Aaron Pauls role as Joshua is reduced to pop up from a bush from time to time while he puzzled looks that Moses speaks to themselves. One of Scott’s many noticeable whimsical decisions is to portray God as a defiant, tyrannical brat with rage issues. Which so far is in line with the Old Testament portrayal of God, but it feels as if whatever Sir Ridley pointed nose of religious fanatics.
Well, it’s quite possible that we are dealing with a “Kingdom of Heaven” -situasjon here. Scotts costly crusader epics were cut down by the film company 20th Century Fox before premiere in 2005, and the result was similar underveldende – until Scott later dropped a three-quarter longer “director’s cut” on DVD and Blu-ray, which confirmed that this in complete form was one of his better films. I suspect that part of the shortcomings will be rectified if Scotts complete four-hour version with time released on Blu-ray, but doubt very much that “Exodus: Gods and Kings” will remain as a masterpiece of any length. This is a visually stunning adventure that feels remarkably points – and dispassionate.
The only touching moment comes at the very end: Ridley Scott has dedicated the film to “my brother Tony,” who committed suicide in 2012.
ESPEN SVENNINGSEN RAMBØL
No comments:
Post a Comment