Goods Of Egypt Movie Review

Gods of Egypt is a 2016 fantasy film featuring ancient Egyptian deities. The United States-Australia production is directed by Alex Proyas and stars Brenton Thwaites, Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Chadwick Boseman, Elodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, and Geoffrey Rush. Butler plays the god of darkness Set who takes over the Egyptian empire,

and Thwaites plays the mortal hero Bek who partners with the god Horus, played by Coster-Waldau, to save the world and rescue his love.

Filming took place in Australia under the American studio Summit Entertainment. While the film's production budget was $140 million, the parent company Lionsgate's financial exposure was less than $10 million due to tax incentives and pre-sales. The Australian government provided a tax credit for 46% of the film's budget. When Lionsgate began promoting the film in November 2015, it received backlash for its predominantly white cast playing Egyptian deities. In response, Lionsgate and director Alex Proyas apologized for the lack of casting diversity.

Lionsgate released Gods of Egypt in theaters globally starting on February 25, 2016 in 2D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D. It released the film in the United States, Canada, and 68 other markets on February 26, 2016.

The film takes place in an alternative Egypt, where the world is flat and gods live among mortal humans. The Egyptian gods are distinguished from humans by their greater height, golden blood, and ability to transform into animal-headed deity forms.

Bek, a mortal thief, with his love Zaya are about to attend the coronation of Horus by his father king Osiris. However, during the ceremony Osiris is killed by his jealous brother Set, who seizes the throne and declares a new regime where the dead will have to pay with riches to pass into the afterlife. Horus duels Set in deity form but is overpowered, and during the chaos, Bek is separated from Zaya. Horus' lover Hathor begs for his life, so Set settles for tearing out Horus' eyes, which are the source of his power, and banishing him to the desert.

A year passes, during which Set marries Hathor and commissions a grand obelisk tower to be built in honor of his father Ra. Bek has found Zaya among the slaves building the monument, under the ownership of the chief architect Urshu. Believing that Horus is the only one who can defeat Set, she takes floorplans from Urshu's library which aid Bek in stealing one of Horus' eyes from Set's vault. However, Urshu finds out about their theft and mortally wounds Zaya as the couple flee. Bek arrives at Horus' prison, where he makes a bargain with the blinded god: one of his eyes and Bek's knowledge of how to get into Set's tower in exchange for Horus bringing Zaya back from the dead, before her spirit reaches the gate to the afterlife where she'll have no riches to pay. Horus agrees, though not telling Bek that he cannot resurrect the dead.

With only a single eye, Horus can not assume deity form. He and Bek travel to a mountain shrine to Ra to plead for his help, Ra transporting them to his divine vessel above the Earth's sky. Horus is unable to convince Ra to regrant him his power in full or to intervene and defeat Set himself, as Ra is both neutral about their conflict and daily at war with an enormous shadow beast, Apophis, that threatens to devour the world. Nevertheless, Horus obtains divine waters from Ra's vessel, which would weaken Set if poured in his shrine of eternal fire. Horus and Bek return to the mortal world, fighting off Set's warriors on the way.

Set sets out to obtain other gods' powers in order to increase his might. Having gained Horus' other eye and Osiris' heart, he confronts his former wife Nephthys and cuts off her wings for himself. Hathor attempts to divine Horus' location in secret, but Set discovers her and attempts to kill her. She escapes by removing a bracelet protecting her from the underworld's demons, which steals her from Set, into the underworld, until she puts the bracelet back on, returning Hathor to the mortal world. Eventually reaching Bek and Horus, Hathor saves them from Set's assassins Astarte and Anat and reveals to them that Set's shrine is protected by a riddling sphinx. The group heads to the library of Thoth to recruit him for help, certain that he will be wise enough to answer the sphinx's riddle.

Arriving at Set's shrine, the gods and Bek overcome its traps, including the sphinx, to reach the source of Set's power. But before they can pour the divine water in, Set intercepts them and reveals Horus' deception to Bek: that he would be unable to bring Zaya back from the dead. Set destroys their flask of divine water, steals Thoth's brain, and collapses the shrine on them. Horus saves his allies' lives with his strength, but Bek is furious at him for lying about Zaya, whose spirit is just moments away from the afterlife's judging. Hathor then sacrifices her own safety for Zaya's payment, giving up her protective bracelet to Bek and then is immediately kidnapped by the underworld's demons.

Having obtained the powers of the gods, Set travels to Ra, appealing to his father for approval. Ra claims that all of Set's prior mistreatment were tests preparing Set for his true role, taking Ra's place as the defender of the world aboard his solar barge. Set is dismayed to hear his destiny was to rule alone above the planet until he dies. He then casts Ra off the boat and decides to let Apophis consume both the mortal and immaterial realms, so that Set may create a new world where he is immortal.

Bek returns to the mortal world where Horus apologizes and the two resolve to take down Set, capturing Urshu so that he may guide them through Set's obelisk. While Set calls down Apophis on Egypt with Ra's staff, Horus battles him on the tower's peak but is heavily outmatched. However, Bek comes to his rescue and takes the other eye off of Set's armor. He throws it to Horus but falls off the obelisk, and Horus chooses to save Bek instead. This act restores Horus' power, and he battles Set until Horus brings down the obelisk and kills him. He then finds Ra and returns his staff to him, allowing Ra to once again repel Apophis.

Horus is restored as king and his other eye found and returned, but Bek has been killed. Having saved Ra, though, his grandfather repays Horus by bringing Bek and Zaya back to life. The other gods have their attributes restored, and Horus is crowned king and declares the afterlife will be open to the good doers of the world. Bek is made chief advisor, and he gives Horus back the bracelet, letting Horus rescue Hathor from the underworld.

 

Gods of Egypt is directed by Alex Proyas based on a screenplay by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. The film was produced under Summit Entertainment. Proyas was contracted by Summit in May 2012, to write the screenplay with Sazama and Sharpless, and to direct the film.Proyas said he sought to make a big-budget film with an original premise, to contrast franchise films. The director cited the following films as influences on Gods of Egypt: The Guns of Navarone (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Sergio Leone's Western films.Lionsgate anticipated for Gods of Egypt to be the first film in a new franchise after it finished releasing The Hunger Games films.

Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was cast in June 2013.Gerard Butler, Geoffrey Rush, and Brenton Thwaites joined the cast toward the end of 2013.Chadwick Boseman and Elodie Yung joined the cast at the start of 2014.

Proyas filmed Gods of Egypt in Australia. A crew of 200 began pre-production in Sydney in New South Wales, and producers considered filming in Melbourne in Victoria, to take advantage of the state's tax incentive. Docklands Studios Melbourne was too booked to accommodate Gods of Egypt, and producers were instead offered an airport facility for production The Australian states New South Wales and Victoria competed to be the location of the film's production, and Summit selected NSW in February 2014. The state's deputy premier Andrew Stoner estimated that the production would add 400 jobs to the state and contribute $75 million to its economy.

Filming began on March 19, 2014 at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney.The setting of Anubis' temple was filmed at Centennial Park in Sydney, and visual effects were laid over the scene. The production budget was $140 million. Jon Feltheimer, the CEO of Summit's parent company Lionsgate, said Lionsgate's financial exposure was under $10 million due to tax incentives of filming in Australia, as well as foreign pre-sales. The Australian government's tax credit to have the film produced in the country covered 46% of the $140 million production budget, and most of the remaining budget was covered by the foreign pre-sales.

In the film, the gods in humanoid form are 9 feet (2.7 m) tall and in "battle beast" form are over 12 feet (3.7 m) tall. Proyas used forced perspective and motion control photography to portray the difference in height between the actors portraying the gods and the humans. Proyas called the logistical challenge a "reverse Hobbit", referring to The Lord of the Rings films in which Hobbits are depicted as shorter than humans. For the Sphinx, actor Kenneth Ransom portrayed the giant creature via motion capture. For the god Thoth, who can appear as many copies, actor Chadwick Boseman was filmed hundreds of times from different angles. For a scene with many copies of Thoth, other actors took a day to film the scene, where Boseman filmed the scene for three days.