Not enough Gerry Butler for you today? As if today’s review of Kandahar wasn’t enough, lets take a look back in time to the ruins of another big-budget vehicle for the mighty Scot. The Mother lode for fans of movies that are so-bad-they’re good, Alex Proyas’s high-minded, low-achieving epic demonstrates what happens when everything going wrong with a big-budget movie at the same time, to intensely comical effect.
Plotwise, God Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is double-crossed by his brother Set (Butler) and banished; a simple thief Bek (Brenthon Thwaites) agrees to help Horus if the god will fix the release of his girlfriend from the underworld. Meanwhile Geoffrey Rush orbits the earth on a flying boat, the late Chadwick Boseman tries to figure out riddles and Rufus Sewell lurks in the background, seemingly the only one in on the joke.
The concept is actually pretty good; why not bring Transformers-style digital effects to a portrayal of Egyptian mythology? There’s plenty of scope for spectacle, and Gods of Egypt certainly looks nothing short of amazing. But when the cast are anything but Egyptian, ranging from Bryan Brown to Butler himself, any claims to ethnic authenticity go straight out the window, and the selection of diverse accents rings the wrong notes from the get-go. ‘If I even attempted to explain, your brain would liquefy and run out of your ears!’ one character says, and he’s probably right on all counts.
The ambition of Proyas’s film falls well short due to slipshod technique; the idea that the gods are all bigger in size than mortals means that eye-lines are all over the place, and characters are constantly addressing thin air. A triumph of hubris and a travesty in execution, Gods of Egypt was universally panned on release, but anyone seeking a silly Saturday night spectacle will find plenty to enjoy if they dare to exhume this blast from the ancient past.
This is the sort of film you find in those big red “we don’t want these in our stock anymore” baskets at Asda.
Exactly. I snap them up when I can!
Truly a fascinating trainwreck. I agree that Gods of Egypt did have an interesting concept that might’ve worked as well as Clash of the Titans, but the execution terrible. The size difference was especially distracting. I’m not the kind to care much about not casting a specific ethnicity in an already bad movie, but there is some wrong here. Not sure I’d rewatch it as dumb fun. If I want purely entertaining CGI heavy Egyptian movies, I’ll stick with the Mummy franchise.
I’m glad to hear other people noticed how mch of a trainwreck this was. But that idea could fly, I’m just not sure I’d bet on it based on this nonsense version…
I’ve seen it! It was funny as feth! and I can heartily recommend. Yep!
It’s a match! I saw this at the cinema and just couldn’t believe it. It’s wonderful gibberish. I think Alex is the man for the job, a classical scholar like him should be able to tease out the nuances.
I don’t think Alex does silly.
I’ll make him silly.
So, everyone is looking at the gods bellybuttons? See any good ones?
It’s hard to tell with all the flying CGI, but it’s fun watching!
I’m a fan of navel gazing. Well, only when I do it. When someone else does, it’s just pretentious…
It’s more like actors delivering their dialogue without knowing who they’ll be spliced into the film next to. So they end up looking three feet above or below the other performer. Not sure what to call it.
I have some ideas of what to call it….
Yeah, I’ve often seen this on the DVD shelf but never bothered because it was supposed to be so terrible. I just got a revamped Clash of the Titans vibe from it, and that was just a waste of time. Not sure even Gerry could save this for me.
I dare you to cross paths with the amazeballs gods of Egypt !