20170830: Fantasy Review--Gods of Egypt

Name: Gods of Egypt (2016)
IMDb: Gods of Egypt page

Genres: Fantasy.   Country of origin: USA, Australia.

Cast:
Nikolaj Coster-Walder as Horus.  In a sense, there are no other actors in the film.  The movie is about Horus.

Gerald Butler as Set, Geoffrey Rush as Ra, Elodie Yung as Hathor, Bryan Brown as Osirus, Brenton Thwaites as Bek, Courtney Eaton as Zaya, Chadwick Boseman as Thoth, Goran Kleut as Anubis, Rufus Sewell as Urshu, Emma Booth as Nephthys, Ya Ya Deng as Astarte, Abby Lee as Anat.

Directed by: Alex Proyas.  Written by: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless.

Hathor, Horus, Set, Zaya, Bek

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Egypt holds a great celebration for the passing of rule from Osiris, son of Ra, to his son Horus.

Delineation of conflicts:
Horus is the designated heir of Osiris.  Horus' uncle Set does not see it that way.  On the day of succession, Set stages a coup. Osiris is killed, Horus is defeated, blinded, and exiled in short order.

The large majority of the film is about Horus regaining his sight, his strength, his relationship with his grandfather Ra, and rule of Egypt.  Set did not make this easier.

By and large, opposition by other gods is put down.

Resolution: The film begins and ends with epic fights between Set and Horus.

One line summary: War of succession in ancient Egypt.

Anat and Astarte with mounts

Statistics:

Cinematography/SFX: 10/10 Visually striking. Set design was just lovely. The depictions of the afterlife, of Ra's endless fight with Apophis, of the fights of the gods (Ra vs Apophis, Set vs Horus, Set vs Osiris), and the impressive architecture--all were fabulous.

Sound: 9/10 I could understand the dialog, which is a large plus for me.  The atmospheric backgroud music was well recorded.

Acting: 6/10 Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Walder, Geoffrey Rush, Rufus Sewell, Goran Kleut, and
Chadwick Boseman were excellent, 10/10

On the other hand, Brenton Thwaites and Courtney Eaton were beyond bad.

Screenplay: 8/10 The film held my attention, which most films that contain magic do not.  Much of this was the writing, the rest was the fine acting by the principal actors, which overshadowed the failures of the children.

Final rating: 8/10