GODS OF EGYPT, A Must or Must Not Film?

What do you get when someone decides to tackle a not so commonly touch pantheon in mythology and set it into film?  When research on mythological facts were truly made and then given a new flair to capture the present moviegoers?  When fantasy and reality are meshed to create an alternate earth making this story possible and plausible . . .  you get GODS OF EGYPT.

The setting of this film is on an alternate Earth where gods and human walks side by side.  Where statues of the gods are gilted in gold and displayed for all to see.  This is a place where gods are human like in form and attitude, though not in size; something that is akin to the description of the children of the sons of heaven with the daughters of men.  A time where gods wages their war on the earthly and godly plane and all of creation is caught in between.  That is the base storyline of this film; when personal desires and grievances tops the greater good of all.

Meet Bek and Zaya, two mortals that reflects the extremes of man’s faith to his god.  One doesn’t believe in divine providence while the other holds on to what she knows till death.  Bek is a thief who survives in life by doing what is best for him and those important to him.  Zaya is his beloved who believes that the gods shall do what is best for all humanity.  Trapped in the war of the gods, they still do what they can base on what they believed in. Bek will do what he can to survive after the fall of the House of Osiris while Zaya still believes that her god Horus will rise back again and deliver the glory that Egypt once has.

Presented in the film are the two houses of gods that represent Egypt – the House of Set and the House of Osiris - Upper and Lower Egypt. Forming the House of Osiris are Osiris himself, Isis – his sister-wife, Horus his son and that of the other gods such as Thoth, Hathor and too many to mention.  The House of Set is formed by Set himself and supposedly with his siter-wife, Nephthys, who turned her back on Set in the film, same as what is depicted in mythology.  The only data presented in the film that created a bit of confusion for me in is how Hathor was described as the goddesss of love, similar to the goddess of the same title in the Greeks and Roman myths.  In myth, Hathor is someone older than Osiris.  She is the goddess who takes care of the milk that flows in the galaxy (*hint*milkyway galaxy).  She is also a goddess equal to Isis in the sense that if Isis is for life and rebirth, Hathor is for the departed souls.  Hathor cares for those who is going to the other side thus earning the name, Lady/Mistress of the West.  The way I see it, she was tagged as a goddess of love because of the caring that she does to the souls and that of the milk that sustains the galaxy and not the emotional and physical love that we are familiar with.

The cinematic art that showed the armour god form of Set and Horus were fabulous!  Being the sky god, the hawk feature showed in Horus armour form is so apt in terms of details.  It is like being robotic and not at the same time.  The wings of Nephthys were also great in terms of colors and its metallic sheen.  Though I am not aware of Nephthys being depicted with wings in ancient images, it was a good touch in showing the protective side of her thus her character being tagged as goddess of protection – in myth text she is a goddess of war.  The armour god look of Set was down to the letter!  In myth text, Set(h) is depicted as an god with a head similar in composite to that of a jackal or a fox, and an aardvark.  The beast depiction of Set’s head is truly unknown for modern men.

This is an action-adventure themed movie, where the fight scenes are semi-breathtaking and somehow mystically realistic (imagine fighting a giant snake that breathes fire).  The taking back of the Eye of Horus shows how present cinematic technology can enhance a scene but at the same time display the mathematical genius of ancient Egyptians, which is quite awesome to behold!  The spear of Set, which was a gift from Ra, reminds me of another retractable weapon shown in another mythological based film (*hint* Zeus’ bolt).  I just find the gigantic beetle and the birds a little off.  The snake I can accept but the beetle and the birds carrying carriage is a little too much for me – so magical for me (not mystical).  I love the war-like image that they depicted for the two war goddesses namely Anat and Astante, the only thing that I find confusing and interesting was the weapon used by Anat.  It was the ancient war axe which is good but on myth text, Anat uses a bow and arrow.  Another character that I find off is their depiction of the sphinx.  In myth text, there is a beauty in viewing a sphinx but the way they presented it was something akin to a sand golem – roughly formed.

The music is somehow a downer for me.  When you hear their music track, you would know it is Egyptian themed and somehow reminds you of other Egyptian themed movie (*hint* Prince of Egypt).  There was no spice in their music making it truly stand-out as a new sound track to listen at.

Gerard Butler is good as a villain!  He showed the pride of a god and humanity at the same time.  His depiction of Set is truly worth seeing. I love him as a villain – a villain that is with internal conflict eating inside him yet trying to justify the torch of conflict that he bears. Next to him is Chadwick Boseman, who acted as Thoth.  The way he depicted Thoth harped on the pride in knowing everything, something that is a common trait with people who are tagged as geniuses or truly knowledgable on something.

As a whole, how do I find the film?

I like the effects for it was not that flashy that hurts the eyes when watching it at the big screen.  I like the human aspect depicted by the gods.  It was a good film to view once or twice but nothing more than that because of the simplicity of the storyline.  In all honestly, it took me sometime to write about this movie because I still have to resolve some of the initial confusion that I got from the film since I have some knowledge about Egyptian mythology/pantheon.  Digging into mythological texts is not easy because of the number of sources but I was able to find some relevant text and mythological stories supporting the character form presented in the film.  It was a fun challenge to truly get the right text and have logic work on that info to truly see where the writer and filmmaker is coming from.  

This is a good film to have as part of your personal movie collection because of the novelty of the theme and the effectiveness of Gerard Butler as a villain.  Beyond that, then it is already your personal reason as to why you wish to watch it and have a personal copy in your movie box.