Exodus: Gods And Kings **1/2
Dir:  Ridley Scott
Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Maria Valverde, Aaron Paul, Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, Golshifteh Farahani

Ridley Scott’s take on the Old Testament tale of Moses is done well. The CGI-driven special effects create a moody atmosphere - the plagues brought down upon the Egyptians are disturbing enough – and the cast for the most part provides the right amount of gravitas (the exception being Joel Edgerton as the Pharaoh Ramses - he comes across as more of a petulant frat boy).  But there’s nothing really new in it either.

Scott does try to provide a quasi-secular plausibility to the events (Moses’ visions of God or Yahweh could possibly be the result of a knock on the head and the plagues could have natural causes explained in terms of basic science according to this version).

He also tentatively raises some tricky questions (would a merciful God really kill off all the Egyptian first-born?) and draws what could be termed as a fleeting parallel to the servitude of the Jews under the Egyptians to the current plight of the Palestinians.

But he also, just as quickly, backs off from any murky territories and largely sticks to the old Hollywood formula, right down to casting mostly white actors in the primary roles.

With all its cheesiness, bombast and Technicolor (and the gawd-awfulness of Charlton Heston), there was still a certain old-fashioned propulsive quotient to the Cecil B. De Mille version.

Exodus is a bit dull by comparison and never really satisfactorily answers the question as to why it needed to be made.

Cut to chase: Adequately done but really brings nothing new to the oft-told tale.

Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz