Gods of Egypt (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray) [2016]

First of all I loved the 3D. Right from the start you have the 3D effect of characters and scene. But I was most intrigued to get another angle on the whole pre-ancient makers of civilised man. The word we came to use was 'gods' because of their complete consciousness of how life works. And for all the special effects there is also an interesting if simple script.Through all my investigations I have been peeved at the conflicts always portrayed. Even the Makers argued it seems. Stories of flying battles are in many cultures across the world, stories part of their creation. Brothers a common battlefield. Slavery is also often depicted. It feels like we are travelling down that road again. Back to polarised, man-made division. Because we can.The ending of Gods of Egypt brought my thinking round closer to a conclusion. Those Minds that created our 'civilised' selves provided the only language that humans carry forward life after life: the language of stories. Morality tales. None of them are true, they paint a picture for us to understand caring and not caring. They even created the Jesus story, as the Moses effect was incomplete. Film as text. Temples to think, to take heed. To care.

Ancient Egyptian Gods part of the school curriculum. This movie brought the imagination and history to life!

Liked the idea, but the film is a very predicable. The overall views of the ancient Egyptian cities are wonderful and I like the antihero Set, but the acting is awful and the main hero annoying to say the least. If you like the standard goodie/baddie adventure with a happy ending this is definitely for you, but as I said, it lacks a really interesting story and the acting, hmmm.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from Game of Thrones stars as louche douchebag god Horus, who's mildly annoyed that being made ruler of Egypt will interfere with his busy schedule of drinking and larking about with nubile servant girls. Gerard Butler plays his militaristic estranged brother Set. Both have Daddy and Grand-daddy issues (all gods do - didn't you know?) and so when Obvious Dead Meat - sorry, Osiris - announces Horus as the next ruler of Egypt, Set sees it as the perfect time to stomp in and launch a tantrum...followed by a murder party - sorry, coup. Up until now, teeny humans and big tall Gods have lived in something akin to harmony. Unfortunately Set failed his P.R. exam, so the humans mostly end up as slaves, which irks Bek (no, not the musician). Played by the impossibly pretty and breathtakingly not-Egyptian looking Brenton Thwaites, he's desperate to rescue "girlfriend" Zaya, from slavery. Mainly because she's played like a wilting salad leaf by Courtney Eaton, and helps offset his eyeliner. Oh, and she might be able to help him un-seat Set. This seems a poor idea, because she's a slave of Egypt's head architect, played by Rufus Sewell - a man who has played as many understanding bosses as Bruce Willis has played Proctologists. Regardless, Bek forges ahead, manages to rouse the anger of almost the entire hierarchy by braving Egypt's equivalent of The Crystal Maze, and ends up forging an alliance with Horus. Who seems to be in a stinking mood and virtually useless.Nevertheless they Set off (sorry) and brave deserts, assassins and battles aplenty, aided by the super-slinky Elodie Yung as love goddess, hypnotist and royal bed-hopper Hathor. Hathor and Horus have what One Direction would call a whole lot of history, so expect many snarky lines and much glowering. Meanwhile Butler gets more and more mischievous and evil, until events move towards their spectacular conclusion... Gods of Egypt is about as unsubtle as moviemaking gets. Quite apart from the audience-pulling casting almost completely forgetting to bear racial issues in mind (much to its regret), it's a CGI-heavy family filmed aimed solely at filling multiplexes and emptying brains. Horus is played with considerable charisma but little depth by Coster-Waldau, while Butler slices the ham of his performance so thickly that you expect a baguette and some pickle to arrive any moment. Bryan Brown is ill served by the kind of thankless "stand there and seem decent" rubbish role that must bore actors to tears, and Geoffrey Rush just gets to glare under half a ton of wrinkly makeup and shoot fire-bolts at some kind of wriggly space-hoover creature. Thwaites is all enthusiasm and exhortations, while Yung essentially exists to sell a blatant political-commentary side plot about how the big and powerful shouldn't mug off the little guy. Saving this deeply unsubtle film are three things: the enthusiasm that the cast bring to roles that they know are ludicrous...the 3D, which works brilliantly and helps elevate the tension of the action scenes...and the spectacular visual design. Make no mistake, this is a feast for the eyes. For every set piece where gods seems to morph into some kind of Egyptian Transformers, there is a scene where someone sprouts shimmering iridescent wings, or gods duke it out in stunningly beautiful temples. Gods of Egypt got a right royal stomping for its racially insensitive casting - perhaps rightly so - but that seemed to engender a malice that led to an almost universal slating that it didn't really deserve. It's dumb, silly, and cheesy nonsense, but it's also fast paced and knows it's ridiculous.For a big bombastic pile of daftness filled with hammy performances, impressive fights and crazily beautiful action, this really isn't bad.

Film was good 👍

I think it's disgraceful for a modern movie to be released without subtitles available. There were a few times during the film I was uncertain of what the characters were saying and really really wanted subtitles.That being said, I really enjoyed this film. It was slick, the special effects were excellent, most of the actors were brilliant, most (but not all) of the dialogue was clear, and the whole production was extremely well done.The movie did remind me a little bit of a well-done panto. Highbrow it aint. But it has an over-the-top bombastic fun edge to it.I would recommend this movie, as long as you don't require subtitles.

I can completely understand some terrible reviews for this film - it's not going to win any awards, for anything, any time soon; most of the acting is abysmal, some of the action sequences are like watching someone play a platform computer game (jump! duck! turn! roll! jump etc!), and the script is often funny without intending to be. Add to this the fact that given the film's title many people might have been expecting some kind of enlightened take on Egyptian mythology (or even something remotely accurate concerning it!) and it's fair to see why it might have some negative reviews.None the less, if you give it a go as a film that has very little to do with Egypt or it's Gods in a serious sense and take it as just a silly but fun fantasy adventure then it's perfectly enjoyable. I did that and personally just enjoyed it as a slice of non-taxing stupid special effects laden sword and sandal style fun with mythical creatures and heroes and heroines - outside of anything serious it's an enjoyable enough story of classic good vs evil set within a very 'creative' version of Egyptian mythology which looks great with some sumptuous sets and magical effects.Gerard Butler, Brenton Thwaites and even Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (albeit to a much lesser extent) are all suitably terrible in this film but all look pretty with their skirts and swords and oiled, tanned muscles as they chase each other about for a couple of hours and at the end of the day it will all come out in the wash if you hate it. Give it a go!