Gods of egypt
The twaddle of the Sphinx
released 24 october (blu-ray/dvd)/ out NOW! (download) 2016 | 12 | blu-ray/blu-ray 3d/ dvd/download Director alex Proyas Cast Nikolaj coster-Waldau, brenton thwaites, Élodie Yung, Gerard butler
If the script for Gods Of Egypt fell back through time and into the hands of Ray Harryhausen circa 1974, he may have made a kitsch classic out of it. Stripped of its gaudy videogame aesthetic, and shot on location instead with the occasional stop-motion monster, it could have been a great, cheesy follow-up to The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad. But this isn’t 1974. Blockbusters have moved on.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays Horus, deposed by evil brother Set (Gerard Butler), who nicks his eyes. This sends Horus into a sulk until a plucky human, Bek (Brenton Thwaites), helps Horus regain his eyes, dignity and throne by being annoyingly cheerful.
Technically there’s virtuosity here, but it’s a lot of effort dumped into a creative vacuum. With its painfully artificial virtual sets, arch performances, pompous dialogue and ADHD pacing, Gods Of Egypt lacks a unifying vision. Unless that unifying vision is “let’s make a crap film”.
Extras Six 10-minute(ish) featurettes on the stunts, effects, cast, hair, costumes and make-up, production design and shooting in Australia (the DVD just has two). The Blu-ray also has animated storyboards for two scenes that didn’t make the cut. Dave Golder
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau wore a see-through eyepatch for fight scenes so he didn’t suffer from a lack of depth perception.