(This review may contain spoilers).
Having watched Noah, I was kind of wary about seeing another film based on events from the Bible, but when I saw the trailer for this film, it intrigued me enough to want to give it a chance… and I talked my dad, sister and younger brother into going with me.
This film was actually a really good interpretation, in my opinion. There were certain things I knew that my dad didn’t like (such as Moses’ lack of a staff and the use of ‘B.C.E.’ in terms of time frame), but apart from that, it stuck very close to the original account.
Having God shown as a child was an interesting interpretation. I’m not sure I entirely agree with it, but I was pleased to see that there were certain things that weren’t just brushed off. Although many of the plagues were linked to each other, I felt that, despite the scientific explanations, it was fairly clear that there was a force directing them.
With some of the more minor characters, I did find myself getting confused at times. I felt that Aaron, especially, and Joshua, weren’t shown enough to make me able to discern them from all of the other bearded men in the film.
It was hard not to feel sorry for Ramses at times in this film. Parts of this were really similar to the Prince of Egypt movie, but I was a bit disappointed that not much of Ramses’ and Moses’ relationship was explored before Moses found out the truth of who he was.
There were quite a few recognisable actors in this film, but many of them didn’t have much of a part, when I felt they could have been explored a bit more. There were quite a few emotional scenes in this and although I wish Moses and his wife had been shown interacting a bit more before they got married, I did think their relationship was quite sweet.
All in all, this was a good film to watch with nice costumes and mostly faithful to the original account in the Bible. I’m not sure I’d watch the film again any time soon, but it was nice to see it with at least some members of my family.