 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Sep 25, 2016 - 6:46 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
DeputyRiley
(Member)
|
I just watched Gods of Egypt (2016) on DVD and I enjoyed it, faults and all.
I watched it with an open mind -- a mind completely aware of the exhaustively widespread negativity that has been lavished upon the film not only since it was released and people had a chance to actually see it, but a long time before that. I'm not the kind of person who lets critics' reviews nor peers' opinions determine my chances of seeing a film -- external opinion is virtually ineffective, for many reasons that I won't get into right now. I will say however, that I enjoy many a film that the general population either dislikes or dismisses, so I've learned to investigate movies on my own terms and wholly decide for myself.
So when something like Gods of Egypt comes along, I acknowledge the nearly universal scorn that it receives before, during and after its release upon the world box office and chalk it up to "other peoples' opinion" and it's a movie that may or may not elbow its way up the insanely long list of movies and TV shows that I certainly don't have time to fit into my life.
My entry point of course was Marco Beltrami's score -- I'm a well-known and unashamed die-hard fan of the composer and hold his score for GoE to be one of his absolute finest-form masterpieces, and when a score is so good it will often convince me to see the movie, if nothing else to see out of curiosity how it works with the imagery and to enjoy the music as it plays with visuals.
Finally I waited until the movie was inexpensive used on Amazon and I ordered it and watched it, and HERE'S THE SECRET TO WATCHING AND ENJOYING GODS OF EGYPT: I didn't expect a good movie going into it. I didn't expect a Raiders of the Lost Ark or one of the old-fashioned epics it was supposedly trying to emulate. If you go into it knowing that yes! there will be bad acting and yes! there will be lame dialogue and yes! there will be a simplistic narrative and just enjoy the ride, you may just have a good time. It was kind of like a live-action Disney cartoon a lot of the time.
Movies can be enjoyable, or entertaining, or moving, or rewarding, or thought-provoking, or necessary, etc. for many different reasons, and they can serve lots of different roles as an art form and sometimes they can -- and do -- exist to just entertain and they can do so while still having bad acting and bad writing and a silly story. That's 1999's The Mummy in a nutshell and I enjoyed that a lot. A bland lead, one-liners all over, scenery-chewing villains, pretty women, CGI-overkill (although impressive at times), great music, amazing costumes, commendable production design and sets, etc.
Gods of Egypt had a horrible lead in Brenton Thwaites -- luckily he wasn't the sole lead, but he was an atrocious part of this film which already has things working against it. Other actors can pull this type of stuff off but anyone who allowed him to make it this far in the Hollywood big leagues should be punished quite severely. He was similarly awful in The Giver -- no chemistry with anyone, can't act even by accident, line readings of a 3rd grader. GoE would've been marginally better with a different actor in the role of Bek.
Otherwise the actors in the movie are all very entertaining: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is an appropriately likeable hero, Gerard Butler is an appropriately badass badass, Rufus Sewell is an amusing mortal sycophant, Elodie Yung did quite well as Hathor. The women in this movie are utterly beautiful -- Yung, but especially Courtney Eaton as Zaya, who is beyond gorgeous.
Anyway, I doubt anyone will read this and go see it because it's a drop of positivity in a completely empty bucket of praise for the film, but let it be known that someone out there actually did enjoy the movie -- not because it's great or well-done or of high quality, but because it was fun to watch and because although not everyone will for their own tastes, I was able to cast aside preconceived notions and popular opinion and watch it with no expectations. Yes, some of it was dumb, but occasionally it's ok to let a movie like that slip into my viewing schedule and just have fun with it, not take it seriously at all, and appreciate the multisensory wonderland on display.
Also, Beltrami's score is fantastic!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I saw GODS OF EGYPT just after seeing the Coen Bros. HAIL CAESAR! HC was pretentious, meandering claptrap. GoE never pretended to be anything than what it is: fun adventure romance.
This is the kind of movie I grew up with in the 50's, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Works for me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
It exceeded its production cost of approximately $140 million at the box-office (worldwide, according to IMDB) back in June, so Proyas gets to make more movies, right?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yes, so if you lower your standards and expectations you can find a lot more movies enjoyable.
So easy to be mean to others. I hope it makes you feel better about yourself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
