YMMV / Exodus: Gods and Kings

• Angst? What Angst?: Moses displays surprisingly little angst over discovering that he was born amongst slaves and that his former family are now his enemies.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: One of the reasons attributed to the box office returns or lack thereof was that people simply weren't interested in the story of Moses, a powerful and spiritual tale, turned into another Scott sword-and-sandals battle epic (or just not interested in the story of Moses, period).
• Broken Base: As is common with films based on Bible stories, some are mad that it's not a more traditional interpretation, some don't appreciate the deliberate deviations from the account of events in the Scriptures, while others just see it as more religious propaganda (Ridley Scott identifies as agnostic).
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Christian Bale once played Jesus in a TV movie. Now he's playing another icon of religion. He's also the second actor to play Moses after being Batman, after Val Kilmer. He was also supposed to play the titular character from Darren Aronofsky's Noah, in which that film had Scott's usual leading man Russell Crowe!
• Nightmare Fuel: The crocodile attack in the movie, which looks like something straight out of Jaws.
• Older Than They Think: The Ten Commandments also has Rameses citing natural explanations for some of the plagues(red mud poisoning the river causing frogs to leave with flies spreading diseases among men and beasts. However in context, it's pretty clear he's just trying to rationalize the plagues as natural occurrences to avoid the idea that a genuine supernatural element is active.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Right when the first trailer hit, mostly everyone was talking about the cast being white rather than the actual film itself. After the movie dropped with low ratings, the Race Lift will be the only thing anyone will remember the movie for.
• Questionable Casting: Casting white actors in the main Egyptian roles.
• So Okay, It's Average: While several critics disliked the movie overall, a number of them claimed that while the cast and visual effects were excellent, the movie didn't really leave its own mark on the Exodus story.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The Nile crocodiles are very obvious CGI.
  • When Ramses is holding his dead son in his arms, it's blatantly obvious it's a doll.
  • There's also the rockslide that overtakes Moses when he goes after the sheep. It looks less like a rock-slide and more like Styrofoam Rocks.
  • Many of the moments with the most potential to be visually striking (the burning bush, the pillar and wall of fire, many of the plagues) were written out of the story or downplayed, leaving audiences familiar with the source material disappointed.
  • The parting of the Red Sea left many underwhelmed, as the sea doesn't so much part as it recedes into an enormous hanging tsunami. Realistic, but dull.
• Squick: Many of the plagues, especially compared to their depiction in The Prince of Egypt. The Nile turning to blood due to the large number of animals dying in it, the flies and lice showing up due to the frogs that fled dying in the heat, and especially the plague of boils.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Pretty much anyone not named Moses or Ramses. Miriam and Queen Tuya just disappear during Moses's exile, while Nun dies before his screen time clocks the ten minute mark. Zipporah is barely used at all. Joshua, meanwhile, is given a good introduction as a rebellious slave who can't be broken, but hardly makes a blip afterwards.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Moses is shown training the Israelites to become guerilla fighters but before they can put their training to use, God steps in and inflicts the plagues upon the Egyptians.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Critics concluded that it was a pretty bad film, but the visuals, imagery and some of the acting sure looked good, as usual in a Scott film. Joel Edgerton turns in the most honest performance of the movie as Ramses.

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