Exodus is about as unsympathetic an exploration of one of the world’s longest-enduring religions as I can imagine. How does Scott get away with this? If he were to do a similar epic on the origins of Islam, he and everyone else involved would be living in a bunker in an undisclosed location. Evangelical Christians not only take the insults from Hollywood graciously and willingly, we pay them handsomely for the pleasure. So go see Exodus, if you want. Just remember that the more you subsidize it, the more of this you’ll get.

I have been asked to provide my thoughts on Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods & Kings.

First off, I really, really want to assure you that I love movies. I do not walk into movies expecting to hate them—not even Noah. And it’s actually very rare for me to thoroughly dislike a movie. It just so happens that sometimes the awfulness of a movie is enough to overwhelm my initially positive expectations. And it also happens that this has been the case with the two most notable biblical epics produced by Hollywood this year. If that gets me the reputation for prejudice or being overly critical, so be it.

But I’ll first accentuate the positive. I found Ridley’s Scott’s lavish sets and expansive cinematography breathtaking. Nothing felt false to me. He truly created a wonderful vision of what ancient Egyptian civilization might have looked like. This is not only true of the big stuff—pyramids and architecture, but even the small details. When Hebrew writing shows up, for example, the alphabetic script is true to the time period. That is impressive attention to detail. The costuming was wonderful, as well. Scott and his team splendidly brought all those two-dimensional Egyptian hieroglyphs to living, breathing, three-dimensional reality. The action sequences were terrific (particularly the early battle with the Hittites). I found much of it exhilarating.

The casting is a mixed bag. Christian Bale does a workmanlike job, although awkwardly confused in a couple of scenes what sort of accent he was shooting for. By far—and I mean by far—the star of the show is Joel Edgerton, whose portrayal of Ramses was superb. This performance ought to catapult him to the A-List.

Other decisions I found strange. Ben Kingsley is one of the finest actors of his generation, and I thought he was sadly under-used. And why Sigourney Weaver? I hope she didn’t spend hours trying to get into character: what little character she has contributes about a dozen words that anybody else in the world could have delivered. Speaking of, Ridley Scott would’ve done just as well to pick a random guy on the street to play Aaron Paul’s role (Joshua), for all the acting it took. There certainly weren’t many lines to memorize. And, finally, I’m sure there are a number of actors with the necessary gravitas to credibly play the role of Pharoah, but I personally don’t think John Turturro is one of them.

So if you’re looking for a wonderfully lavish look at what ancient Egypt might have looked and felt like, you should go see Exodus. If you’re looking for a really fine acting performance, you should go see Joel Edgerton in Exodus. If you’re looking for realistic CGI of plagues and miracles, you should go see Exodus.

Oh, and if you’re looking for something utterly offensive and insulting to Jews and Christians, you should go see Exodus.

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