Get downloadable PowerPoint presentation.
What Happened:
The movie has some great special effects and an outstanding cast led by Academy Award-winning actor Christian Bale, but the movie wasn’t received well by critics and has been, ahem, plagued with controversy.
Part of the problem may be the liberties Director Ridley Scott took with the biblical story. Many of the plagues God visits upon the Egyptians may have a natural explanation in Scott’s telling; Moses leads a guerilla war against their Egyptian overlords; and God in Exodus is portrayed as a petulant 11-year-old boy.
“With its skeptical take on faith, religion and God’s always sovereign and sometimes supernatural hand in history, 20th Century Fox’s highly anticipated release of Exodus: Gods and Kings…likely will disappoint faith audiences,” according to Faith Driven Consumer. “The film will trouble those who take the biblical story about Moses and the miraculous deliverance of the Hebrews from 400 years of slavery in Egypt seriously.”
It’s not all negative, though. Exodus also gives moviegoers a Moses who learns to trust in God (even if God appears as a little boy) and leads His people to freedom. Pharaoh thunders, “I am a god!” and is punished for his arrogance.
Talk About It:
As do most movies, Exodus: Gods and Kings has its plusses and minuses, and it’s largely up to the audience to determine whether one side outweighs the other. When you compare it with other biblical movies this year, it’s not as accurate as Son of God but probably more accurate than the rock monsters in Noah.
Have you seen Exodus: Gods and Kings? Are you planning to see the film? How important is biblical accuracy to you when it comes to biblically based movies? Do you think movie makers should stick with the original script, or is it OK if they put their own spin on the story?
What do you think will be the impact of Exodus on moviegoers? Will it make non-Christians think about faith? Will it shake the beliefs of believers? Will it vanish without much impact at all?
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
“You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you” (Deut. 4:2).
