Rating of
3/4
Excellent religious movie
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/01/08
This is a retelling of how "Moses" (voice of Val Kilmer) in his battle with his adoptive brother "Rameses" (Ralph Feinnes) to let him take his people out of Egypt.
The first thing you will notice is the incredible animation in this film. Despite various shades of brown dominating just about every scene, everything from the character design to the background is as close to perfect I have seen in a long time.
All the performances are excellent. I don't believe there was a weak performance from any of the all-star cast. I enjoyed pretty much every performance, even the ones that were there for comic relief.
Character development isn't really there in this film. This is mostly because of how well known the majority of the characters are. However, with all that is going on on the screen, you won't really notice what little development there is in the supporting cast.
There were a few liberties taken by the writer. This is because they wanted to attract more than just the Christian audience. This doesn't detract from the movie however, and is barely noticeable.
The score is very nice. But none of the songs will ever become classics I think. The songs do help advance the story nicely. The scenes that the songs are in are also done nicely as well.
This movie isn't really for the "Dora the Explorer" generation. There are some dramatic parts that may be a little intense for them -- especially the parts depicting the Passover story. There is no blood and gore in what could have been more violent, so older children could be less disturbed when these scenes come on-screen.
If you are familiar with the Moses story, you will notice that the subplots leading to the Exodus are there. But because the movie focuses on the battle between "Moses" and "Rameses" these are given only just enough time to advance the story. If this movie was longer, these subplots could have been looked into a little longer.
The ending of the movie leaves it wide open for a sequel, if one was ever planned. They barely scratched the surface of the story of Moses leading his people out of Egypt. Maybe this film should have been released as a multi-video pack telling the whole instead of an approximately 90 minute movie in theaters.
Despite forgettable flaws, this is a wonderful movie that is mostly loyal adaptation of one of the most important stories in the Good Book.
