Based on Egyptian mythology, "Gods of Egypt" circles around a time when gods not only ruled, but walked among men on the earth. As the god Horus (Coster-Waldau) is crowned as the new king of Egypt, his ruthless uncle Set (Gerard Butler) interrupts the coronation and challenges Horus to a duel for the throne. Trying to prove himself, Horus is unsuccessful and loses his eyesight along with his godlike abilities in the process. For the sake of the Egyptians and his love, an unknown Egyptian mortal thief known as Bek (Brenton Thwaites) trespasses and successfully retrieves the eyes of Horus. After making a deal with the fallen king, Horus and Bek build an alliance to take back the throne from Set and bring peace and harmony back to the land of Egypt.
Poor execution and poor use of effects.
Just by the first trailer alone, "Gods of Egypt" was a mess to begin with. From the very beginning, the film rushed itself with characters dialoguing with one another, making it difficult to invest time in them let alone care about them. All but two characters were uninteresting, which really is not saying much due to how awful the execution was in dialogue and portrayal. Whether a character was killed off or injured, there really was nothing to be surprised or shocked by. To be specific, Bek was an Aladdin wannabe; in other words, a thief with a big mouth. The connection between him and his love interest was unbelievable, uninteresting, and overall really poorly executed. The reactions he had — whether negative or positive — to certain situations were very dull, almost as if he barely read his lines right before shooting. Even Gerard Butler himself remained as uninteresting as everyone else. This was honestly surprising due to past films where he has played a harsh and fierce warrior. In "Gods of Egypt," however, his character barely stood out.
Aside from these poorly portrayed characters — who by all means did not ethnically fit in what is known to be one of the greatest African empires — the CGI effects were very poorly done to the point where the use of green screen was highly noticeable. This is not to say that CGI is pointless because a large amount of CGI use can be executed well as seen in Director Zack Snyder's "300"
(2009). The same cannot be said for this second-rate Zack Snyder wannabe CGI film. From landscape shots to architecture, and even the gods themselves, the effects were anything but believable as it made the film even more unbearable to watch.
Final film words:
To know that this over-the-top CGI-fest was directed Alex Proyas — the same director who brought us "The Crow" and "I, Robot" — is still pretty shocking to know. I honestly don't know what goes through production companies' minds as they give movies such as this a go, let alone fully funding them. Despite the lack of quality in this film, "Gods of Egypt" is a film one could say “is so bad, it's fun.” Other than that, the film fails miserably to deliver an action-packed, entertaining film on the ancient gods of the ancient world. "Gods of Egypt" is — wait for it — God-awful.
Final film review: 1 out of 5
