Exodus: Gods and Kings (12A)

This is definitely not the Charlton Heston and Cecil B. De Mille version of the Moses story.  Instead this version of the story of the Hebrew man who became Egyptian royalty and went back again, is told in a matter of fact way, without as much fanfare as the earlier version had.
However ‘Exodus’ did have its moments of plagues and horrors that no movie before it has ever shown.  Compelling it is and graphic.
Producer, Ridley Scott returns to a format he is familiar with, but sadly this movie is no ‘Gladiator’.
Christian Bale as Moses gives it his all, but seems unhappy along the way without a more believable script, which also needed more believable characters.
The story of Moses about courage and faith and taking on the mighty Egyptian empire is a David and Goliath story – which of course was another biblical story.  We all know who won those battles.
Obviously the movie had great visuals of hundreds of thousands of slaves, battle scenes, rodents crossing the city streets, among many others.  It’s difficult nowadays to tell if they are real, or computer generated.  Sadly the latter seems to be the case, for financial and other reasons.
There is a burning bush, as in the biblical tale, but surprisingly it’s not as interesting a visual as the 1956 version.  The image of God is not that of an invisible force with a bellowing hollow voice, but that of a young child scolding Moses.   It works for this version of the story but it seems too easy a way to present the story.
The 3D visuals in the movie is not really necessary, but overall the story is well told, and not the worst movie around.
David Flynn