Enjoyably trashy, totally bonkers fantasy adventure Gods of Egypt plunders ancient Egyptian mythology with go-for-broke abandon, giving us feuding 12-foot-tall deities, plucky mortals, desperate quests and as much energetically schlocky action as a $140 million budget will buy.
Good taste doesn’t get a look in, but the rumbustious action is entertainingly silly as Brenton Thwaites’ crafty young thief strives to aid Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s deposed god in his strife against his usurping uncle (Gerard Butler) in return for a promise to free his dead beloved (Mad Max: Fury Road’s Courtney Eaton) from the underworld.
Along the way, there is a harum-scarum raid on a booby-trapped vault right out of Raiders of the Lost Ark, an encounter with the riddling Sphinx and a desert showdown with a pair of warlike goddesses riding giant fire-breathing serpents.
Though saddled with modern slang and accents that veer all over the Anglophone globe, the actors enter into the film’s spirit. Butler, Scottish brogue defiantly intact, charges along with gusto, while Geoffrey Rush lends hammy conviction to the spaceship-piloting god Ra. The women have less to do, but French–Cambodian Elodie Yung is enjoyably slinky and imperious as Hathor goddess of love.
Certificate 12. Runtime 127 mins. Director Alex Proyas
Gods of Egypt is available on Digital Download and is released on Blu-ray & DVD on Monday 24 October from Entertainment One.
Extra Features: DVD - The Battle for Eternity: Stunts - A Window Into Another World: Visual Effects Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray Only - A Divine Vision: Creating a Cinematic Fantasy - Of Gods and Mortals: The Cast - Transformative: Costume, Make-Up and Hair - On Location: Shooting in Australia - Deleted Storyboards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBnK2wNQSo
