Plot: What’s it about?
Gerard Butler continues to flex his action muscles with Gods of Egypt, another mindless CGI action fest that’ll either give you exactly what you want or make your head hurt with its endless and extended action sequences. You know which category you fall into. Unfortunately, I’m the latter as the film quickly got to me. King of Egypt, Osiris (Bryan Brown) is abdicating his throne so his son Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) can take the reins. It’s when Osiris’s brother, Set (Gerard Butler) shows up that problems arise. Set is now in control, and Horus is disfigured and Osiris now dead. The film then has Horus and thief, Bek (Brenton Thwaites) teaming up to try and stop Set. Like a lot of characters in films of this sort, Set was always jealous of his brother, and this led him to his outrage to try and gain control.
There’s a lot going on in the film, but the plot is merely an excuse to showcase endless battle sequences and CGI. Admittedly, some of them are well done, but when there’s so little investment in the story, the action can only carry it so far. Let’s remember the PG-13 rating as well that definitely limits the potential here. Not that an R rating would vastly improve matters, but it might’ve at least added some grit to an otherwise over-produced film. There are some robotic creatures running around and all sorts of stuff. Not much of what’s seen here really makes sense of any kind, but I suppose the filmmakers didn’t feel it had to. Take away the obvious modern touches, and there’s a clear throwback vibe to the film. It seems to be inspired by the swashbuckling films from 50’s. In some ways, it can be applauded, but you wonder if they committed more to that approach how the film might’ve been. Instead of trying to go big, maybe they should’ve scaled back and focused more on the story and characters. As it stands, there is indeed an audience for this film, but it’s just not me.
Video: How does it look?
It must be said that the film looks quite nice. The transfer more than delivers. If nothing else, one can sit back and at least appreciate the visuals here. Colors are bold and robust, and the details immaculate. Whether you have the most elaborate setup or not, one can’t deny that this looks nice. The print is pristine as well and shows no flaws. Fans (and even non-fans) will be delighted. The image is AVC encoded with a 2.40:1 ratio.
Audio: How does it sound?
We get a massive DTS HD track that never once lets up. This may be far from the best film, but this is demo worthy just in terms of A/V quality. The score and endless, loud effects will keep your system busy for the entire duration of the film. All the channels remained active throughout, the dialogue came through nicely as well. But it’s the effects first and foremost that’ll impress here and indeed they do.
Supplements: What are the extras?
DVD Extras
- The Battle for Eternity: Stunts – A look at the choreography of the stunt and action scenes are analyzed as well as some rough animatic footage.
- A Window into Another World: Visual Effects – A bevy of interviews with the creative and visual effects team are shown as well as some of the myriad of special effects used in the film.
Blu-ray Exclusives
- Deleted Storyboards – A couple of scenes are analyzed with some deleted footage in animatic form.
- A Divine Vision: Creating a Cinematic Action Fantasy – A pretty routine EPK that features the usual interviews with the cast and crew as well as some of the technical folks involved and what it took to bring this special effects bonanza to the big screen.
- Of Gods and Mortals: The Cast – As you might imagine, the usual suspects are interviewed here all praising the script and their attraction to their roles, etc.
- Transformation: Costume, Make-Up and Hair – We see the somewhat painful transformation some of these actors go through to literally look the part and we get some more behind the scenes footage to boot.
- On Location: Shooting in Australia – The title pretty much says it all. We get a tour of some of the shooting locations they used to re-create the Egyptian desert.
The Bottom Line
While not without its charm, Gods of Egypt is still a misfire. The acting is bad, action overdone and story a bit too muddled. There is a certain audience that’ll eat this thing up, but it did little for me.
