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Not Wholly Moses

Director Ridley Scott has a new take on the Old Testament with "Exodus: Gods and Kings." The "Gods and Kings" part of the title is apt, as the movie walks a line between the secular and the spiritual (more so than Darren Aronofsky's recent "Noah").

Even if they haven't read The Book, most audiences will be familiar with the story of Moses (Christian Bale) rising up against Pharaoh Ramses (Joel Edgerton) and leading his chosen people out of a plagued Egypt. This re-telling wisely begins in the middle, setting up Moses' Hebrew backstory as a dramatic gotcha moment.

In a creative interpretation of the Book of Kings, where God speaks in a "still small voice," God is portrayed in "Exodus" as a moody English boy named Malak (Isaac Andrews), with the expected incongruous results. When Malak asks Moses: "What were you going to say?" (surely He would know!) it's only a stone's throw away from Monty Python or Mel Brooks.

3D effects in movies are generally ineffectual (aside from box office earnings) but "Exodus" has an army of opportunities (locusts, hail...fire tornadoes) to fill the screen with spectacle, and a long-anticipated Red Sea climax does not disappoint. Though it might have been overkill to add crocodiles to the already heavy-handed mix of plagues (which suggests God is not as vengeful as Scott).

A fittingly epic cast includes Ben Kingsley, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, and a woefully underutilized Sigourney Weaver, but this is Christian Bale's and Joel Edgerton's movie, whose characters have strong parallels with Commodus and Maximus in Scott's own "Gladiator."

Though "Exodus" depicts many things that are hard to believe, a lack of diversity is sadly not one of them. Casting a non-white leading role in a movie set in the cultural crossroads of ancient Egypt is apparently a miracle too great even for Moses. Ironically, Hollywood defends not having minority actors in the same way Ramses defends having minority slaves. To Moses' immortal "Let my people go!" Ramses replies: "From an economic standpoint alone, what you're asking is problematic."