Scholars of Egyptology, look away now. And fans of coherent storytelling might also be advised to give this bombastic fantasy action picture a wide berth. Gods Of Egypt inelegantly cobbles together several myths, and invents a few others, risking the wrath of Osiris (Bryan Brown), his son Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), his jealous, vengeful brother Set (Gerard Butler) and the almighty Sun God, Ra (Geoffrey Rush). The screenwriters, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (The Last Witch Hunter), throw in a few token human characters, chiefly irrepressible thief Bek (Brenton Thwaites), and a whole lot of stilted exposition that muddies rather than clarifies the mess they have made of ancient Egypt.
The film doesn’t just play fast and loose with mythology, it also besmirches the cinematic legacy that precedes it – chiefly, the inventive ancient Greek special effects creations of Ray Harryhausen. Director Alex Proyas favours a gaudy, gilt-coated aesthetic. The effect is tacky, like a gift-shop version of ancient Egypt. If you cut the gods open, they actually bleed gold paint, and the same is probably true of the film.
