Gods Of Egypt

When my younger sister Isabelle was very young, she used to collect paintings on Egyptian history. She also had VHS tapes with Egyptian history, where we found out more on how the amazing pyramids were build, and all the tombs that have been found. Egypt have a lot of ancient history, and i would love to go over there someday. Since there have been a lot of poiltical issues, and other problems within Egypt, i might wait for a vacation there. But someday, i hope to visit the pyramids. There are a lot of motion pictures that have told stories of ancient egyptian history. One of the most loved ones has to be The Ten Commandments from 1956. Even if this film is very old, it still looks great today, and have a great cast included. However, i would like to talk about a completely different film, that changed me and my sister´s childhood. In 1994, on a boat to Denmark, we got to see Stargate on board the ships cinema screen. We both fell in love with this film, and thought it was one of the best sci fi adventure films in many years. Stargate may have a lot of over the top sci fi action scenes, but it actually worked out really well. It was one of the few films that managed to bring back Egyptian history and make a unique combination, that tuned out better than expected. You probably remember the Mummy films with Brendan Fraser that were actually entertaining, and there is a remake coming with Tom Cruise. Since i enjoy most of Tom Cruise action film releases, i am hoping he will do something good about this remake. When it comes to Egyptian history in films, we don´t really get to see a lot of releases nowdays, that bring us historical Gods, that we have read about in history books. Well, we did have Exodus: Gods And Kings, and it was not too bad. Maybe the cast of Christian Bale, Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley helped the film quality raise a bit more. About 4 months ago i was reading a lot discussions online about a film called Gods Of Egypt. I had no idea what this film was, until i saw a trailer. I could tell that this would be a film, perfectly made to match the taste of Mark Levengood. Gerard Butler seems to be back, doing what he loves most, fighting with his muscle builded body. The reviews were not very positive after the premiere, but i felt that i will go and see this film with an open mind. Is this the greatest Egyptian historical film since Stargate, or are all the critics correct about their negative feedback ?

In an alternative Egypt, a ceremony is about to take place, where Horus ( Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ) is about to be crowned king. His father Osiris ( Bryan Brown ), King Of Egypt, is very proud to let his son take over the thrown. The ceremony is suddenly broken, when Osiri´s other son Seth ( Gerard Butler ), kills his father to stop his brother Horus to become king. Seth take the crown, and take his brother Horus eyes, so he have no powers. This way, he will make sure that he rules the land of Egypt. Years pass by, and Seth have built an unstoppable army, that no one seems to be able to defeat. Bek ( Benton Twaithes ), a mortal thief, have the love of his life Zaya ( Courtney Eaton ), killed. To bring her back, he needs the help of Horus. So he goes on a quest to bring Horus his eyes back, but only find one. Horus agree to help Bek, bring Zaya back to life, but only if Bek helps him, to seek revenge on his brother Seth. Information about Bek helping Horus, is brought to Seth. He will make sure his brother will not get his plans succeeded. But is Horus strong enough to make this journey, with only one eye, and without the powers he used to have ?

Before i watched Gods Of Egypt, i have heard so many warning signs on this film from different critics. I had a feeling that i was going to experience something special, that this film might change my life forever . In some ways you could say that this is the type of film that will give you a really special experience. Gods Of Egypt have some of the most extreme acting performances i have seen in a long time. It is like Gerard Butler and his muscle friends, felt the need to look like gods with less brains and more muscles. And this is where Gods Of Egypt basically stands, it is all about the action, and the special effects. Considering the budget of the film is 140 million, some of the special effects does not look good. Especially when the main characters turn into Egyptian Transformers Gods, and begin fighting. You can tell that they try to look like Egyptian gods, but none of the actors looks like they were born in Egypt. The dialogue is not very good, pretty much done as simple as possible. I would like to point out that this film, is the category of " So Bad Its Funny ". Because you will laugh, once you decide to see Gods Of Egypt. There are so many scenes, where you wonder why they threw all the budget away. I have seen films made on a budget of 5 million that looks really good, like 10 Cloverfield Lane as an example. But for 140 million, we should have had a masterpiece. The few times where i find myself something to be happy about, is to see Gerard Butler kick ass. You are reminded instantly about the film 300, where he also brought muscles to another level. He is actually the biggest reason why you watch this film, because he usually fit in this formula. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Horus, also have a couple of funny scenes. He may not give a really good performance, but at least you can be entertained by his dialogue and body language. Director Alex Proyas have directed some good films in the past. Especially the 1994 film The Crow, where Brandon Lee died on set. It is one of the 90´s classics everyone should own in their dvd collection. I also enjoyed his film I, Robot and Knowing. I can see that he wanted to make Gods Of Egypt majestic, but there are so many ideas here thrown together, it does not match. If you are going to use historical facts, use them in a traditional way, or combine with unexpected combinations. Gods Of Egypt feels too easy, and too mainstream. You don´t really care about the characters, or the story. I could do like everyone else and give this the lowest rating, but i actually think this is a funny film ( in certain scenes ), and it is not supposed to be funny. This is why i don´t hate Gods Of Egypt, you can actually laugh watching the film, and see how bad it actually is in some ways. One advice Gerard Butler, please be the one to do a remake of Hercules In New York, we all want to see you do this.

Rating: DD