Gods of Egypt (2016)

"Gods of Egypt" stars Brenton Thwaites, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Gerard Butler, and Geoffrey Rush. Released on February 26, 2016, the film is about a mortal thief who teams up with an Egyptian god to save the world from Set, the god of darkness.

The film is directed by Alex Proyas, who also directed films such as The Crow, Dark City, and I, Robot. When you realized that a big-budget film such as this is in the month of February instead of during the summer, chances are it's going to spell trouble for the company. You want to know why? Well, let's just say that the early reactions were not as good as the studio have hoped. Despite the fact that this film is a fictionalized take on Egyptian mythology, it has been criticized for 'whitewashing' Egyptian characters. Geez, people are so sensitive with diversity these days. First the Oscars and now this? I pretty much knew what I was going to expect from this film, but does it get the job done?

The performances in the film were pretty decent. Thwaites portrays Bek, a mortal thief who goes on a quest to rescue his love. He teams up with Horus (played by Coster-Waldau), who seeks to reclaim his throne from Set (played by Butler). The characters in the film aren't that very special, but the actors did their part in making them somewhat likable. Set doesn't count, though. He's a big fat jerk. I thought Butler did a decent job portraying the antagonist. Normally, I would see him portray a good guy, but it's nice to see him do something different. The film has a lot of CGI, which would explain its pricey budget. While most of them were pretty impressive and eye-catching, there were some that were quite noticeable. The action sequences were handled very well, especially during a couple battles between Horus and Set.

One of the flaws I had with this film is the story. Even though it has the amount of style needed to make a fun popcorn flick, the story failed to follow suit. There really wasn't that much depth to be found in terms of the characters. Also, it's pretty nonsensical in terms of how they describe Egyptian culture. There were also times where the editing cuts away some of the emotional moments in order to move the plot along. It's not that much of a big deal as the editing in Pan, but it would be nice to have more depth in the storyline.
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Overall, the story in "Gods of Egypt" was pretty ridiculous, but it did not affect my enjoyment of watching two Egyptian Gods with winged metal suits battle to the death. Aside from the foolish 'whitewashing' controversy, this film offers some decent performances and some fun action sequences to make it a silly, yet entertaining, CGI fest. If you're in a mood for a fantasy action flick, but you don't care that much about the story, it's worth a watch. Otherwise, it's worth a rental.

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C+