Exodus: Gods and Kings / **½ (PG-13)

Moses: Christian Bale

Ramses: Joel Edgerton

Seti: John Turturro

Joshua: Aaron Paul

Viceroy Hegep: Ben Mendelsohn

Zipporah: María Valverde

Nun: Ben Kingsley

20^th Century Fox presents a film directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Adam Cooper & Bill Collage and Jeffrey Caine and Steven Zaillian. Running time: 150 min. Rated PG-13 (for violence including battle sequences and intense images).

“I’ve never been certain whether the moral of the Icarus story should only be, as is generally accepted, ‘don’t try to fly too high,’ or whether it might also be thought of as ‘forget the wax and feathers, and do a better job on the wings.”

― Stanley Kubrick

The films of Ridley Scott always strive for greatness. He directs almost everything on such a grand scale that it is inevitable that every once and a while he will, like Icarus, fly too close to the sun. “Exodus: Gods and Kings” is one of those times when Scott’s visionary scope has him biting off a little more than he can chew, or more accurately more than has been chewed for him by his screenwriters.

“Exodus” joins the growing population of Christian-themed movies filling our metroplexes of late. Although, it may not truly be as Christian-themed as the Christian-produced movies that take place in modern times, such as “God is Not Dead” and “Heaven is Real”. Like Darren Aronofsky’s film “Noah” earlier this year, “Exodus” is not so much about being Christian as it uses the Bible as a source material for a special effects extravaganza. Also like “Noah”, it changes a great deal of its source material. In doing so, it seems to have forgotten to transport much of the depth of Moses’s story.

Noah / *** (PG-13)

Noah: Russell Crowe

Naameh: Jennifer Connelly

Tubal-cain: Ray Winstone

Methuselah: Anthony Hopkins

Ila: Emma Watson

Ham: Logan Lerman

Shem: Douglas Booth

Japheth: Leo McHugh Carroll

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Darren Aronofsky. Written by Aronofsky & Ari Handel. Running time: 138 min. Rated PG-13 (for violence, disturbing images, and brief suggestive content).

I remember learning the story of Noah as a small child in Sunday school. As a child it was a story that also existed outside of religious context. It was as much a fantasy as “Where the Wild Things Are” or Winnie the Pooh, although we were also asked to believe it as fact. At that time, there was no reason for me to question it as fact. I believed the Earth was flooded by God and that Noah and his family were the only humans to survive and that they gathered together two of each species of animal on the Earth and packed them into that Ark that was 300 cubits long and 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. I didn’t even question what a cubit was. Obviously, it was a form of measurement, like a foot or a yard.