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Mario Bautista, has been with the entertainment industry for more than 4 decades. He writes regular columns for People's Journal and Malaya.

Mar 2, 2016

Gods Of Egypt Movie Review - Children Will Enjoy This CGI Spectacle More Than Their Parents

THIS ACTION-FANTASY extravaganza rewrites ancient mythology giving new gods to Egypt different from the more familiar deities of Rome and Greece. It starts with Osiris (Bryan Brown), the God of Nature, about to pass his crown as King of Egypt to his son, Horus (Nikolaj Coster Waldau of “Game of Thrones”). But Osiris’ brother, Set (Gerard Butler), suddenly appears. He’s always been bitter that their father, the sun god Ra (Geoffrey Rush), favors Osiris over him. He gatecrashes the coronation, kills Osiris and pulls out the powerful eyes of Horus so he can be the new King of Egypt.



Set also steals Horus’ sweetheart, the goddess of love, Hathor (Elodie Yung, who hardly knows how to act). The blind Horus is held captive in a crypt but a mortal, Bek (Brenton Thwaites of “Maleficent”), a thief like Aladdin, comes to his rescue to give him back his eyes. Bek’s lover, Zaya (Courtney Eaton), is killed by her master, the architect Urshu (Rufus Sewell) who works for Set, while they’re running away. He then seeks the help of Horus to bring Zaya back from the dead.

Bek and Horus become unlikely partners against the despotic Set who’s been killing the other gods and goddesses to possess their powers and make him invincible. In their quest for justice to stop Set’s tyranny, Bek and Horus will be facing many risky trials and adventures, turning the movie into a buddy road comedy. Problem is there’s not much sympathetic chemistry between Waldau and Thwaites. In all fairness, though, the final showdown between Horus and Set is spectacularly staged.

The movie is directed by Alex Proyas (“Dark City”). The gods are portrayed as towering beings and beside them, humans look like hobbits. Overall, the movie is worth watching as a stunning CGI escapist spectacle that younger viewers will enjoy. It’s not as big a disaster as “Clash” or “Wrath of the Titans”, but somehow, its attempt to create something very big and epic in scale makes it appear trying hard. The gods in metallic creature form may be impressive but they sometimes look silly and the characters are not really that well developed. To begin with, the two leading roles are miscast. Waldau looks more like a villain and should have been the one to play Set and it’s Butler (best known for “300”) who should have been Horus. As Set, he mostly hams his way through most of his scenes.

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