We have Tasted Immortality, What can Death Do To Us! [Here Are The Movies Of The Week]

We have Tasted Immortality, What can Death Do To Us! [Here Are The Movies Of The Week]

Directed by Alex Proyas, Gods of Egypt adapts Greek and Scandinavian mythology to ancient Egypt. There is a ‘harmonious’ unhappiness in the film, from the director to the script, from the visual effects to the acting.

If we exclude the silent film era, we can trace Hollywood’s interest in ancient Egypt to Cecil B. DeMille. True, the ‘father’ of epic cinema was more concerned with stories from the Torah and the Bible; It wasn’t just about Egyptian history. Although the adventure films of the 1930s and 1940s on the backdrop of ancient Egypt, which went into mass production, met the market demand, the 1963 film Cleopatra is an important peak in this field. Bringing the unforgettable character of Egyptian history to the screen, the film brought together the most popular actors of the period, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. However, in this movie, the legendary queen of Egypt appeared on the screen within the framework of Julius Caesar and Roman history.

Putting aside the indirect and authentic ancient Egyptian/Middle Eastern interest in the Indiana Jones franchise in the ’80s, Hollywood’s rediscovery of ancient Egypt, combining the adventure films of the ’40s with new technology from the ’90s, spilled over into the 2000s. Through the door opened with Stargate (1994), the Egyptian Prince, the Mummy series and the Scorpion King series derived from it passed. These films were nourished by the spirit of adventurous exploration in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Ridley Scott’s Exodus (2022) remained a failed emulation of DeMille’s epic cinema.

THE ‘PLOT’ OF PROYAS, BORN IN EGYPT

Nearly 100 years after Ancient Egypt first appeared in the pellicle, it was Egyptian-born, Greek-Australian filmmaker Alex Proyas to plunge into the mythological world of this ancient civilization . When you watch the movie, we can say that it is a bad luck rather than a chance. Egyptian Gods/ Gods of Egypt takes place in an imaginary period when the gods of ancient Egyptian mythology ruled the land. At the coronation of Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who is preparing to inherit the throne from his father, his uncle Set (Gerard Butler) takes the throne with a military coup. Set out, Horus’ greatest source of power, his eyes, sends him into exile. The person who will give hope to Horus, who is deprived of his eyes and living in exile, and who will convince him to confront Set for the people of Egypt, is none other than a thief named Bek (Brenton Thwaites), who is trying to bring the girl he loves back to life. Taking Bek with him, Horus asks the sun god Ra (Geoffrey Rush) for help to restore his lost power.

Director Alex Proyas is a name raised by Australian veteran filmmaker Jane Campion. Proyas reached the pinnacle of his career with The Dark City (1998), aside from his technical and visual success in The Crow (1994), in which Brandon Lee died in a set accident. His performance in the Dark City was closer to Me, Robot (2004) with Will Smith. Proyas, who went behind the camera 7 years after the movie The Prophecy, which became very mediocre under the influence of Nicolas Cage, presents a ‘messy’ movie in Egypt’s Gods.  

PUT IT FROM YOUR WATER

The Egyptian Gods, above all, have a serious ground and concept problem. Although he claims to tell ancient Egyptian mythology, his sources are Greek and Scandinavian mythology. He is trying to reconstruct the mythological world of these two civilizations among the Egyptian gods. It can be understood if the myths are similar to each other. But the film acts by ignoring the differences in culture, society and civilization and the nuances that shape them. The scriptwriters, who put Ra in place of Zeus and place him in space as in Northern mythology, shape other characters accordingly. As a matter of fact, the sewn dress does not fit the characters and the story, as it is worn out. This calmness also leads to infertility visually. In some places we watch episodes from Thor, in others from Clash of the Titans;

The logic of the trader, who approaches the issue with a ladle of water, permeates every frame of the film. Seeing this, it becomes clear why Gerard Butler was included in the cast. Excluding the director’s effort in the afterlife depictions, the Egyptian Gods are destined to remain a wicked merchant effort.

PLAYERS DESERVE THE AWARD!

The concept issue is not to be ignored. However, the clumsy use of CGI technology in the movie with a budget of approximately 140 million dollars and a talented name like Proyas in the director’s chair is surprising. In many scenes of the movie, almost all of which were shot in front of the green screen, the effects shouting ‘I’m here’, ‘Have we been unfair to Fetih 1453?’ she thinks.

While the situation was not encouraging in terms of director, script and visual effects, the actors had no trouble keeping up with them. Without excluding Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, we can already have all the actors nominated for the Golden Razzie Award, which will be given next year.

The Egyptian Gods put feathers on everything by extending the ‘hand of god’ to the ‘mortal’ ancient Egyptian people, to whom they had no interest until the last moment. It is to their advantage to keep their expectations low for those who are going to the cinema.