You might not know it from the gigantic box-office receipts earned by the last "Transformers" movie, but audiences seem to be more discerning these days.
Joel Edgerton as RhamsesPhoto: Twentieth Century Fox
We the viewers are often unwilling to take things on faith or accept something just because that's the way it's always been. You can see the trend in superhero movies, for example. Superman wearing a bright red "S" on his chest? Stupid. But when that "S" is reinterpreted in "Man of Steel" as a Kryptonian symbol, it's slightly easier to swallow.
So why not bring a little reinterpretation to a Bible story? "Exodus: Gods and Kings," opening Friday, attempts to ground the story of Moses.
Christian Bale as MosesPhoto: Twentieth Century Fox
The film begins in ancient Egypt, where Pharaoh Rhamses (Joel Edgerton) and Moses (Christian Bale) are living as brothers.
But Moses was adopted into the family. And when a Hebrew slave (Ben Kingsley) informs Moses that he is actually of Hebrew descent, Moses eventually sides with his people and demands that Rhamses release the slaves. Rhamses refuses, causing God — depicted here as a petulant boy (11-year-old Isaac Andrews) — to unleash a series of plagues on Egypt.
One of the biggest tweaks director Ridley Scott made to the well-known story is to make some of the events more earthbound.
"Ridley always had this idea that you could justify all of the plagues and everything that happens with natural events," says visual-effects supervisor Peter Chiang. "It was a good way to go. You didn't want to put yourself into one canonical belief or religion."
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox
The filmmakers originally tried actually dyeing the river crimson, but too much coloring would have been required to get the proper effect. Instead, the color change was accomplished with computers.
Sigourney Weaver as TuyaPhoto: Twentieth Century Fox
The bloody river then suffocates the fish, which bob to the surface. With nothing left to eat, thousands of frogs swarm the city in search of food.
Those scenes were accomplished mostly using CGI, but some 400 real frogs were used. (Six "frog handlers" were required.)
After the frogs die, flies swarm their rotting bodies.
Other calamities are explained by disease (plague six: boils) and a hailstorm (plague seven).
The only one that could have an entirely divine cause is the sudden death of every firstborn son in Egypt, including Rhamses' boy.
The story's climax — the parting of the Red Sea — is also given a somewhat less miraculous origin.
María Valverde as ZipporahPhoto: Twentieth Century Fox
The "parting" in "Exodus" is really just the water receding before a tsunami hits — a real phenomenon — leaving land exposed that was previously underwater.
"You look back at [1956's] 'The Ten Commandments' and Charlton Heston waving a stick, and you think a chance to redo that using today's technology is a great chance to push the boundaries a little bit," Chiang says.
Bale, who watched Monty Python's "Life of Brian" to prepare, says filming the iconic scene came with challenges.
"I was around a lot of horses who were kicking each other and trying to bite me, and camels who, as we were crossing the Red Sea, they liked to relieve themselves a lot," he says. "You just get used to less-than-glamorous situations and things bobbing up against you that you don't want to say what I think it is."
Will it all be worth it? Maybe it's best to let God — and the box office — sort this out.
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