Egyptian-Australian director Alex Proyas began his career a true visionary, The Crow and Dark City are masterfully striking/atmospheric genre cinema. His talent has since wasted on films like I, Robot and Knowing. Could his latest, Gods Of Egypt, rediscover his mojo?
The film unfolds in a time where Egyptian gods rule humanity on Earth, and finds mortal thief, Bek (Brenton Thwaites) who allies with god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) to overthrow the god of darkness, Set (Gerard Butler) to save the world and rescue his love.
Despite Proyas' imaginative ideas and passion for ancient Egypt, the execution is crushingly awful. The onslaught of average, overabundant CGI (over shiny, poor shading) that badly meshes with actors will make audiences want to pull out their eyes and yearn for more practical elements. The terrible script contains clichéd/silly dialogue, horrid pacing, confused detail (needed backstory lost while characters needlessly explain plot) and misguided tone (serious when ridiculous, cheesy when dramatic).
Whitewashing aside, it's poorly cast with most, particularly Thwaites, incredibly wooden. Coster-Waldau replays Game Of Thrones' Jaime Lannister with little nuance and Butler is jarringly awful, feebly attempting to recapture 300. At least Geoffrey Rush, as Ra, relishes in ridiculousness.
Gods Of Egypt is dreadful and disappointing considering the Australian Film Industry's hard work getting it made and Proyas again squandering his potential.
