Visual effects trump drama in biblical spectacle 'Exodus'

God takes the form of a peevish little brat in "Exodus: Gods and Kings," Ridley Scott's spectacular, problematic biblical epic that updates the Old Testament with impressive visual effects and a contemporary superhero swing.

Depicting the Almighty as an enfant terrible might seem to be a strange choice, but it makes total sense if we see God as Moses does - as an impatient, pushy, demanding deity who treats the incredulous Moses like a disgruntled, underperforming employee.

A stranger choice is that God (played by Isaac Andrews with a painfully furrowed brow) speaks in a clipped British accent, making him sound a bit like one of Fagen's young protégés from "Oliver Twist."

The rest of the cast in "Exodus" also speaks in British accents, save for Sigourney Weaver's Tuya, the pharaoh's scheming wife, whose inexplicably flat American delivery sharply accentuates the vocal consistency of her peers.

These become just a few of the numerous quibbles that dog Scott's visually stunning, yet dramatically arid tale of two men, virtually brothers, pitted against each other as foretold by prophecy.

Moses (former Batman Christian Bale) has been raised as an adopted son of the aging pharaoh Seti (John Turturro), along with his blood son Ramses (Joel Edgerton), in line for his father's throne.

A seer's prophecy comes true when Moses, now a general, saves Ramses during an attack against the Hittites, the first of many rousing battles captured in scenic, soaring aerial shots through Dariusz Wolski's camera lens.

This begins the conflict between Moses and Ramses, who carry the pharaoh's gift of matching swords to commemorate their sibling status.

On a mission to the city of Pithom, Moses witnesses how Egyptian leaders - specifically Ben Mendelsohn's effete and self-serving viceroy - treat Israelites as slaves forced to endlessly construct temples, palaces and pyramids honoring pharaoh and other presumed deities.

Then, Moses meets a Jewish elder named Nun (Ben Kingsley), who reveals the general's secret identity.

"Your parents never told you the truth!" Nun says.

Here, Scott, aided by four screenwriters (among them former Washington Post film critic Steven Zaillian), modernizes Moses with a classic superhero's dual identity as an ordinary man who must now wrestle with destiny and re-evaluate his purpose.

For a while, Moses remains exiled in the wilderness and becomes a lowly shepherd. He marries a woman named Zipporah (Maria Valverde, conveniently a model-grade beauty with alarmingly white, perfect teeth) and settles down, still not feeling assimilated into the Hebrew community.

Finally motivated to action by God in the form of Andrews' cheerless cherub, Moses steps up and demands Ramses set his people free, setting the stage for the film's piece-de-resistance, a succession of biblical plagues delivered with such force and speed that it's like a disaster movie best-hits montage featuring locusts, frogs, hail, blood, giant crocodiles and poisonous fog.

"Exodus" easily eclipses the sheer showmanship of Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 "The Ten Commandments," an epic spectacle highlighted by Northwestern University grad Charlton Heston's Moses parting the Red Sea so the Israelites can escape the forces of the pursuing Ramses.

Scott, always an inventive visualist, tops DeMille with his own epic depiction of the Red Sea escape, an awe-inspiring segment slightly marred by a most improbable twist that, to the savvy filmmaker, might suggest a sequel in the wings.

Both Bale and Edgerton provide the raw gravitas their characters require, but even they struggle with some of the script's more contemporary attitudes, such as Moses railing against inequality and demanding that all slaves be paid for their labors. (What's next? Pharaoh-Care for everyone?)

"Exodus" comes in a 3-D presentation. For those who like the format, Scott restrains himself from throwing things in our faces (and there are many things to throw).

But the 2-D looks brighter and, given the relative restraint of the 3-D effects, do you really want a swarm of nasty locusts in your face?

“Exodus: Gods and Kings”

★ ★ ½

Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Ben Kingsley, John Turturro, Sigourney Weaver

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Other: A 20th Century Fox release. Rated PG-13 for violence. 142 minutes