Film Better than your Standard Popcorn Flick
Gods of Egypt is pretty much like other summer blockbusters such as the Transformers Film Series or string of Greek mythology films seen in the last ten years or so. Lots of CGI and fight scenes with common criticism on story and acting. If you like those you would like this film if you did not like those you would dislike it. However, two things did stand out for me.
Humans Are Special is to a degree averted. Other films like those mentioned above focus on humans to the detriment of the more interesting characters. Either time is spent on them or the gods or super-aliens are brought down to a level where humans can not only compete, but win. Often with a speech on how great humans are and how the gods/aliens/whatever sucks.
This film refreshingly averts this. Humans are have value and are important, but are not the end-all and be-all. They are not the center of the universe. And there are some things simply beyond a human's ability to do.
The second is the sense of imagination in this film. Hollywood films often have to be around in some degree of reality including ones like Star Wars or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this film, Egyptian Mythology is loosely real complete with beetles pulling chariots and Ra pulling the sun in a boat circulating a flat Earth. Some reviews have criticized this as being too ridiculous, but this is ancient mythology given life beyond the comic book or animated medium.
The CGI in this film has been criticized, but it look alright to me. I cannot think of a single live-action film where CGI has not been criticized no matter the budget. The acting is passiable and what you usually find in a big budget film like this.
In this film a masterpiece? No, like I stated it is very similar to films like Transformers or the Clash Of The T Itans remake. However the lack of annoying human characters, lack of plot holes, lack of excessive action scenes, and making a truly large than life world set this one a step above the usual mindless summer blockbuster.
Film Stupidly Enjoyable
I'm not going to try and argue that this is a good movie, because I'm pretty sure I can't. But that said, I'm not going to lie and said I didn't enjoy myself watching it. I see reviews that practically condemn this movie as a sin, and I just have to say: really? Of all the terrible movies that have come out, this movie is so incredibly terrible that its existence is a crime against film, strike that, existence? This movie is ridiculous, its over the top, its incredibly silly, and its at times downright stupid. But in all honesty, its actually kind of enjoyable in his stupidity.
From the first trailer, you can tell that this movie is going to be stupid. And after seeing the reviews, I came to the conclusion that this movie would be bad, and I accepted it. So I walked into the theater expecting a bad movie, but hoped maybe it could have some entertainment. And in summary, if you're looking for some dumb stupid fun, you may enjoy this movie enough. Personally, I don't this movie is the horrible offense against existence a lot of people are making it out to be; but I won't defend its as objectively good, because well, its not; but I can't say I regret seeing it. But don/t pay money for it. Maybe when it comes on TV or if you see it on Netflix, give it a go if you/re in for some stupid entertainment.
I feel bad because this is going to discourage Hollywood from doing anything about Ancient Egypt (which is a fascinating subject), or anything about originality. It's also a pity because Proyas I hear wants to make an adaptation of Dune, which I think he would be great at. But this movie may have dealt a harsh blow to his career.
Film Just watch Thor again.
In Gods of Egypt, the villain's evil plot is to graft pieces of his fellow gods onto himself to become one mishmashed super-god. Just like this movie, which glues parts of other movies onto itself to become a stupid mess. Think Transformers meets 300 meets Thor, starring Snake Plisken as Horus and his human buddy Discount-Aladdin. Anyway, I'm sure you have many questions.
Watch it for just the eye candy? Don't bother. Most of the CG setpieces range from okay to sort-of blurry to looking like it came out of a bad World of Warcraft cutscene. One can't help but play 'find the greenscreen' in CG-heavy scenes, and the forced perspective to make the god characters taller means even basic conversations look disconnected. The only genuinely awesome setpieces are Thoth's library of clones and Ra's solar barge above the flat earth, which one might as well wait for a YouTube rip of.
Okay Egyptian myths story? Nah. The plot is just a standard heroes' adventure trek with Egyptian god names stuck to overused archetypes. The story doesn't feel like the filmmakers thinking: 'Hey let's do a cool story out of ancient Egyptian characters' and more like 'Hey let's stick a bad Marvel movie in ancient sort of-Egypt.'
Any Ensemble Darkhorses? Not really. I thought Thoth was amusing enough, but those who hate C-3PO will probably find him irritating. The actors try their best, but Gerald Butler can't make Set a fascinating villain, Waldau can't give Horus charisma, Courtney Eaton isn't given room to make her dead girlfriend character as compelling as Cheedo the bride, and Brenton Thwaites as Bek 'our hero' is insufferable. In no scene does he ever display relatable emotions like awe or hope or fear. Instead he's stuck to a single dial: cocky quipping 24/7 like a Disney Channel character. I wish he actually did SPOILER.
Is it as racist as Tumblr says? There's actually more black and Ambiguously Brown extras than expected, but indeed almost all the leads are white (except for Thoth who's around for 15 minutes.) The director may have claimed this is an alternate universe, but then he should've gone whole hog and cast Latinx, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, etc actors rather than let Hollywood roll the weighted casting dice. Ra played by Geoffrey Rush may be entertaining because he's Geoffrey Rush, but it doesn't change how jarring it is to see him as the uber-pale head of the Egyptian pantheon.
If you want eye candy that will relax your brain for a few hours, there are so many better options. Watch Thor. Watch 300. Watch Pacific Rim. Watch Mad Max: Fury Road. Heck, watch The Mummy again. You'll have more fun.