Movie Review: Exodus: Gods and Kings

Exodus: Gods and Kings

Twentieth Century Fox, Chernin Entertainment, Scott Free Productions, Babieka, Volcano Films, UK, USA, Spain, 2014.

It is 1300 B.C. and the Hebrews are slaves in Egypt. Moses (Christian Bale) is the best buddy and cousin of future pharaoh Ramses (Joel Edgerton). John Turturro is the old pharaoh Seti. The Egyptians face the army of Hittites. Moses saves life of Ramses. Ramses becomes jealous as Moses is better leader than him.

Moses

Ramses

Seti

Ramses sends Moses to Pithom to suppress rebelling Hebrew slaves. Corrupt Viceroy Hegep (Ben Mendelsohn) wants to slaughter them, but Moses tries negotiating with the Elders. God says that the Hebrews must return to the land of Canaan. Nun (Ben Kingsley) tells that Moses will be the future leader of the Hebrews. Pharaoh Seti dies and Ramses gets the throne. Power-hungry Ramses and his mother Tuya (Sigourney Weaver) become paranoid about Moses and they send Moses to die in desert. 

Nun

Tuya

Moses meets shepherd Jethro (Kevork Malikyan) and marries his daughter Zipporah (María Valverde). Nine years later Moses tries to climb on a forbidden mountain and sees the burning bush and strange boy (Isaac Andrews). Moses gets a mission from God and must return to Egypt to free his people. In Egypt he meets Nun and his son Joshua (Aaron Paul) and begins to train a rebel army. Then God sends ten plagues to torment the Egyptians. God's actions horrify Moses. Finally Moses leads his people to the Promised Land culminating in the epic crossing of the Red Sea.

Zipporah

Joshua

Crossing of the Red Sea

The film looks great. Massive neo-peplum action scenes look impressive. Also the plagues are explained from scientific point of view by Expert (Ewen Bremner) who does not ultimately give satisfying answers to Pharaoh and then the story returns to the mythic territory. However it feels if a lot of film material was left out as some characters just appear and disappear without a clue. Also there are some story build-ups that never come to conclusion, Chekhov's gun has a cork stuck in the barrel. Missed opportunities are Ramses making himself immune to snake poison, Joshua's immunity to pain and so on. Also Aaron (Andrew Target), brother of Moses has very little to do in the story. Many elements of the original biblical story are quickly passed (Ark of Covenant, Ten Commandments), so those who do not know the original story may scratch their heads. 

Overall the film has a good spectacle, with great-looking ancient Egypt but has massive plotholes and some annoying inaccuracies in the script. Versatile Christian Bale makes a transformation from boyish prince to rugged face people's leader.

Older Moses

Rating: Good

Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, María Valverde, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Isaac Andrews, Hiam Abbass, Indira Varma, Ewen Bremner, Golshifteh Farahani, Ghassan Massoud, Tara Fitzgerald, Dar Salim, Andrew Tarbet, Ken Bones, Philip Arditti, Hal Hewetson, Christopher Sciueref, Emun Elliott, Anton Alexander, Jonathan Rod, Maykol Hernandez, Kevork Malikyan, Aaron Neil, Nicholas Khan, Phil Perez, Jorge Suquet, Giannina Facio-Scott, Abhin Galeya, Anthony Rotsa, Ayoub El Hilali, Alejandro Naranjo, Miguel G. Borda, Anna Savva

Director: Ridley Scott

Movie Review: Pompeii (2014)

Pompeii 

TriStar Pictures, FilmDistrict, Constantin Film International, Impact Pictures Pompeii, Don Carmody Productions, Canada, Germany, USA, 2014. 

In Northern Britannia 62 A.D. Celtic tribes are rebelling. Roman legionnaires led by Tribune Corvus (Kiefer Sutherland, from "24") and officer Proculus (Sasha Roiz, from "Grimm") kill young Milo's (Dylan Schombing) family. Milo is sold as slave and he is sent to gladiator training. 

Milo

Proculus and Corvus

In 79 A.D. Milo (Kit Harington, from "Game of Thrones") is a popular fighter and he is sent to Pompeii. On the way there he makes an impression to Roman noblewoman Cassia (Emily Browning). In Pompeii Milo becomes the eyesore of fellow gladiators. However he gains some respect from champion Atticus (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje from "Oz") who has only one fight left to win his freedom.

Cassia and Ariadne (Jessica Lucas)

Atticus

Corvus who is now Senator arrives to Pompeii. Cassia's father (Jared Harris) plans to get his funding to improve the infrastructure of the city. Naughty Corvus plans to marry Cassia. In the arena Milo and Atticus must fight for their lives. As Cassia is in love with Milo, Corvus makes Milo to fight against impossible odds.

Milo and Atticus must fight for their lives

The choir

When Vesuvius erupts all the best-laid plans of mice and men go awry as the pyroclastic flow does not care who is good or evil. As the disaster movie formula goes the first half is about introducing the characters and their motives and the second half is all about the disaster.

Pompeii before...

...and after.

I wonder how much of the movie were leftovers from the project that was cancelled in 2007. Roman Polanski was supposed to direct film adaptation of Robert Harris' novel "Pompeii." In April 2011 Ridley Scott was producing mini-series and first news about Paul W.S. Anderson's film version were announced May 2011. It smells like the fate of Jodorowsky's "Dune" here. 

Although the plots are different (in the book Roman engineer comes to take care of aqueduct, exposes corruption of a Roman land speculator and tries to escape with the daughter of the mentioned land speculator) there are couple of similarities. In the book engineer named Marcus Attilius Primus had a scornful boss named Corax (combined with movie's Corvus that means raven). In the book land speculator's daughter is unwillingly engaged to one of the city's magistrates and the hero must save her from the villa before it is destroyed. 

The movie is a mix of peplum adventure and disaster film, kind of "Gladiator" and "Titanic" combined. Although the story is basically of a Hollywood popcorn flick, it still has guts to avoid syrupy happy Hollywood ending. The depiction of the architecture of Pompeii (although not necessary of Roman society) and the volcanic eruption have been praised for accuracy (except for lava bombs and tidal waves). As a disaster film it is spectacular, just don't expect any groundbreaking or original plot.

The characters are quite typical, but interesting enough to care about their fates. Still much was left on the cutting room floor, some DVD/Blu-ray releases contain over 20 minutes of deleted scenes which are missing from the bareboned Scandinavian DVD. Kiefer Sutherland is the sneeringly evil villain and Kit Harington and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje the brave heroes. Carrie-Anne Moss has a small role as Cassia's mother. 

Rating: Good

Starring: Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Browning, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica Lucas, Jared Harris, Joe Pingue, Kiefer Sutherland, Currie Graham, Dylan Schombing, Maxime Savaria, Ron Kennell, Tom Bishop Sr., Rebecca Eady, Sasha Roiz, Jean-Francois Lachapelle, Jean Frenette, Dalmar Abuzeid, Emmanuel Kabongo, Brock Johnson, Kristina Nicoll, Janine Theriault, Mark Whelan, Anaïs Frenette, Donna Christo, Thomas Stumpo 

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Movie Review: Hercules Reborn

Hercules Reborn 

Starring: John Morrison (aka John Hennigan), Christian Oliver, Marcus Shirock, James Duval, Dylan Vox, Christina Ulfsparre, Alistair A. Duff, Foued Mansour, Jeremy M. Inman, Jennifer Marie Paul, Ben Chagra Khalid, Aurelie Armelle Simone Chatellier, Rim Touassi, Yassine Amer, Youness Lahlafi, Youssef Marchouki, Aziz Janah, Samir Oualid 

Director: Nick Lyon 

The Asylum, USA, Morocco, 2014. 

Drugged Hercules (John Morrison) kills his wife Megara (Rim Touassi) and his kids. Devastated of realising what he has done, Hercules leaves the city of Enos. He is then rumored to go around doing heroic deeds and helping people (this background is somewhat faithful to the original Hercules myth). 

Princess Theodora and Arius

Horace

Greedy general Nikos (Dylan Vox) wants to conquer a village that has a gold mine, against King Demetrius' (Ben Chagra Khalid) will. Arius (Christian Oliver) and Horace (James Duval) are soldiers in king's army. Arius is about to marry Princess Theodora (Christina Ulfsparre) and Nikos gets jealous. Nikos plans a coup with his henchman Cyrus (Marcus Shirock). The princess is taken captive. Arius and Horace escape and getting rid of the evil tyrant is the task to do. They plan to get help from Hercules. However Hercules has become a drunken slob. Horace is skeptical about Hercules, but Arius believes in him. So first Hercules must be motivated to find his inner hero.

Cyrus and General Nikos

Hercules is a bit tired

By the Asylum standards, Hercules Reborn looks well made. This is clearly meant to be a serious actioner, and not a self-conscious genre parody. Luckily silly-looking CGI monsters are missing (although there are some clumsy-looking CGI-effects). The filming locations in Morocco look great, and cinematography looks good in many scenes. However due the budget limitations the city of Enos looks like it has about thirty residents. 

The heroes plan for the next move

Nice-looking cinematography

Action scenes are bloody and overall the tone is gritty and dark. Usually in movies Hercules is a jovial guy, John Hennigan puts some darkness and fierceness into the character. Hennigan also makes some nice WWE slams. I think he would do well in Conan-style sword-and-sandal movies. Christina Ulfsparre is tougher-than she-looks princess. Also Christian Oliver, Dylan Vox and James Duval do well in their roles. Hercules Reborn is one of the better Asylum movies. Acknowledge that this is a low-budget neo-peplum that manages to transcend many of its limitations, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Dispatching the enemies WWE-style

Grittier than usual Hercules

Rating: Good (for a low budget action film)

Movie Review: The Legend of Hercules

The Legend of Hercules 

Starring: Kellan Lutz, Gaia Weiss, Scott Adkins, Roxanne McKee, Liam Garrigan, Liam McIntyre, Rade Serbedzija, Johnathon Schaech, Luke Newberry, Kenneth Cranham, Mariah Gale, Sarai Givaty
Director: Renny Harlin 

Summit Entertainment, Millennium Films, USA, 2014. 

Ambitious King Amphitryon (Scott Adkins) goes around conquering the world. His wife, Queen Alcmene (Roxanne McKee) prays Goddess Hera for help to restore peace. The Queen has a son Iphicles (Liam Garrigan). Philosopher Chiron (Rade Serbedzija) teaches him about war theory. A priestess possessed by Hera (Mariah Gale) appears and announces that Alcmene will get a second son whose father is Zeus. Amphitryon names the baby Alcides, but his real name is Hercules.

Greek pike men

King Amphitryon

Queen Alcmene

20 years later Alcides/Hercules (Kellan Lutz) goes swimming with his girlfriend Princess Hebe (Gaia Weiss). Iphicles is jealous. Alcides then does his first heroic deed, killing the Nemean Lion but Iphicles takes the credit. The king announces the wedding of Hebe and Iphicles. Hebe runs away and the events lead that Alcides is banished to Egypt. Alcides and Sotiris (Liam McIntyre) travel to Egypt with a small group of soldiers. Alcides and Sotiris are captured and Alcides adopts his real name to hide his royal origin. Hercules and Sotiris must become gladiators before they can fight the evil king. 

Hercules

Princess Hebe

Iphicles

The movie tries to copy the visual style of 300, as King Amphitryon says in the film Imitation is the best form of flattery. The sets look mostly okay. The fight scenes look good, especially the gladiator fight on top of stone pillars and the final fight. However the plot holes are obvious and dialogue is often badly written. Also the movie's battles are disappointingly bloodless because of the low PG-13 rating. Sure the plot is predictable, and the movie takes some time to arrive the action sequences. Also the allies Hercules are poorly introduced. There were some legendary heroes such as Agamemnon (Luke Newberry) and Creon (not appearing in the final film, Jukka Hilden of the Dudesons) whose plotlines were cut from the final film (http://www.cinemareview.com/production.asp?prodid=17089 and http://www.iltasanomat.fi/viihde/art-1288640118474.html the latter link is in Finnish only). 

Sotiris and Hercules

One of the opponents is Humbaba (Spencer Wilding)

The gladiator match on stone pillars looks good

However the movie does some tribute to the 50s and 60s peplum movies. It contains all things that you would expect to see in a traditional peplum, muscular men, couple of pretty ladies, an evil king, trusty sidekick, sailing the Mediterranean, loose take on Greek mythology, gladiator battles and some variable quality special effects. There is also the obligatory scene where Hercules must break steel chains after being captured. 

Hercules unchained

Certainly this is not the worst Hercules movie ever made as some of the IMDB trolls would like us to believe. Kellan Lutz is fairly standard muscleman but Scott Adkins makes a good villain role. Despite the movie's flaws and some weird production decisions it is fairly entertaining take on the peplum genre. Oh, and the director Renny Harlin makes a brief cameo appearance.

Renny Harlin and Liam Garrigan

Rating: Average