Gods of Egypt

One of those (perhaps too frequent) oddball Hollywood epics where, the first time you see it, you go "what were they thinking?" But it deserves a second glance. This film is in the grand tradition of the famous 1940s fantasy films like THIEF OF BAGDAD 1940. Flaws and all, it also works as a love story, and you can never have too many of those. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

These films are neither as logical as a STAR TREK saga nor as linear as an Indiana Jones adventure. By nature, they tend to jump around, they tend to be a bit wacky, and they often encourage outlandish performances from their stars.

Which is what we have here. The #1 A-List name star, Gerard Butler has arguably never been more unrestrained in his career. He gives the impression that, after he takes over the world of the living and the world of the dead, his next target is Hollywood itself.

In fact, the lesser known stars give the better textured performances and connect with the audience.

Give it a chance -- as a love story that riffs off some extremely misunderstood Egyptian myths and succeeds in spite of itself, it works a treat.

Already from the trailer alone, you know that this is going to be a special effects movie. And with that in mind, you might already be setting yourself up for a movie that doesn't really require much thinking from you as an audience.

Well, that is partially true actually. The movie is a spectacular display of visual effects, both in CGI and props. And these dazzling effects do carry the movie a great long way, I will say that much. And the story, while it is simplistic, actually did turn out to be entertaining. Sure, it wasn't a brain challenger, not by a long shot, but you know what you are getting into with "Gods of Egypt".

While we are on the CGI and special effects, then I must admit that it was the selling point for me, because I was blown away how they had managed to bring ancient Egypt and their ancient Pantheon to life with today's CGI and special effects.

As for the cast, well, they could have opted for someone a bit more thespian, considering the talents of both Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau and Gerard Butler. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that they did it poorly. Actually far from it, but they are more of a physical kind of acting in terms of action, more than they are set in ways of deeper character portraying through acting.

There is a lot of action throughout the entire movie, and you are constantly being bombarded with visual effects, to the point where it brims on being over-used. But it worked for me.

If you enjoy a good fantasy movie with roots in actual ancient history, then "Gods of Egypt" is definitely worth your time and money. I do think, however, that "Gods of Egypt" is the type of movie that you can watch every now and again with some years in between each watching.

I am rating "Gods of Egypt" a well-deserved seven out of ten stars. This was good, wholesome entertainment wrapped up in a visually impressive package.

The film is a good Fantasy that has a decent story and allot of action. Effects are pretty good and suited the Egyptian vibe.

There was a bit of cheese here and there and it is not a film with great depth, but the acting was pretty good.

Not sure why it got such bad reviews, I can only suspect it was the political correct media who did not like the fact it had white actors playing all the main Gods (which some believe the ancient Egyptian elites were in fact Caucasian anyway, which is a debate) And also it may not pamper to the growing and irritating Femiwood thing, as it was strong men leading the roles, and with effeminate women, a little traditional in that sense. So it would not surprise me if all this was the true motivation behind its poor media reaction, which is a shame.

It was not the greatest fantasy there is, But its a decent film that had a bit of originality to it and if they done a squeal I would be happy to go see it.

Before I watched this movie, I heard about the negative reviews about it. I read that the CGI was awful and that acting was terrible.

I must say people are too quick to criticize. This movie has a unique style and that is what made a lot of people to judge very quickly.

This movie is not a realistic or historical representation of Egypt and it never tries to be. It is more of a picture of how gods would look like and with a taste of magic and dream. The fact that gods are portrayed twice the size of humans should be the first sign of this style.

The color palette chosen for the movie is beautiful focusing on yellow of gold and brown of sand. This coupled with the vibrant and warm colors of the environments and set pieces create a delightful picture to watch.

The story is interesting to follow as it unfolds right from the beginning of the movie with a clash between two brothers. As it is common in these kind of stories, the bad and the good characters are easy to see from the beginning.

The CGI is mostly good and not as bad as it is called out by some people. The creatures are nicely created and the effects are mostly good with the exception of fire/explosion effects. There were times they felt a bit cheap considering the big budget of 140 million dollars of the movie.

I really like the humorous conversations between Bek (Brenton Thwaites) and Horus(Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau), the god of sky. Brenton's character really added a much appreciated tone of fun to the movie and made me feel that familiar sense of feeling of similar movies like Prince of Persia(2010). Actually this movie has some resemblance even to the video game of Prince of Persia for example with the design of creature/guardians. Anyway Brenton Thwaites really puts a good performance and I am curious to see what he will be able to do in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Gerard Butler fulfills his familiar role of war leader very well as expected, of course he is no stranger to these roles.

Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau does a great job portraying his character Horus as well. Although it would be nicer to see a bit more of his character's background.

Overall this movie offers a fun, humorous, entertaining story in a fantasy world filled with magical powers of gods and hatred and love. This movie is bold, vibrant and fast, it's a shame some people couldn't see beyond the distinct choice of style, which I personally found interesting.

I saw this film without expecting anything in particular, the trailer full of action scenes piqued my curiosity in addition to the director's name : Alex Proyas whom I discovered thanks to the very good I, Robot with Will Smith. I must admit that I did not go there without worry in view of the (very) negative reviews, from the press as well as spectators, but I came out of the screening more than satisfied. For once I don't understand why this film is being taken down on all fronts...

Admittedly, it's far from being a great movie but still there are a lot of things to take. Gods of Egypt is therefore a successful action/adventure film, skillfully combining fantastic with the peplum genre in an odyssey in the heart of ancient Egypt, at a time when gods rubbed shoulders with mortals. The atmosphere, the sets and the costumes transcribe well the features of Egyptian mythology, arid deserts with their sandstorms and majestic tombs, all with a mysterious aspect that makes us want to know more about its legends.

The story does not look very far in terms of originality, we approach themes such as wars of power and conquest, heredity, the initiatory journey with a touch of essential romance, but we can forgive this narrative facility with respect to the action. Alex Proyas is not Michael Bay in this field but hé comes out with honors by staging fights between titanic gods in animal/metal armor. So in terms of special effects, we appreciate spectacular good quality. The rhythm of the narration is sustained for 2h10 even if 2-3 timeouts affect the quality the story.

Frankly, even if it remains imperfect, Gods of Egypt is nonetheless a good entertainment , coupled with a rather pleasant little history lesson on Egyptian mythology. A pleasant surprise, I don't approve the bad reviews. 7/10.