History YMMV / ExodusGodsAndKings

* ToughActToFollow: After the acclaim of previous ''Exodus'' epics like ''{{Film/The Ten Commandments|1956}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', this film already had big shoes to fill in delivering its own spin on the story.

* OvershadowedByControversy:
** Right when the first trailer hit, mostly everyone was talking about the cast being white rather than the actual film itself. After the movie dropped with low ratings, the RaceLift will be the only thing anyone will remember the movie for.
** In an interview before the movie, Bale said "I think [Moses] was likely schizophrenic and was one of the most barbaric individuals that I ever read about in my life." [[SarcasmMode Yeah, that's not gonna alienate the demographics most likely to see this film, right?]]

* NightmareFuel:
** The crocodile attack in the movie, which looks like something straight out of ''{{Film/Jaws}}''.

* WTHCastingAgency: Casting white actors in the main Egyptian roles.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** An incredibly glaring one at that. The Hittites in the films beginning are portrayed by dark-skinned or Middle Eastern actors. However, research has revealed they were not even Middle Eastern. ''They were white Indo-Europeans, coming from modern-day Eastern Europe.'' In fact, accounts of the time described them as having light-colored eyes and it's generally agreed they were most likely very fair. You'd think someone like Creator/RidleyScott, who makes SwordAndSandal epics, would know this.
** The Egyptian government and archaeologists actually pointed out to the filmmakers that hanging didn't exist as a form of execution in Egypt during the time of Moses. This makes the scenes of Ramses hanging people laughably inaccurate.
** Women in ancient Egypt were only allowed to be priests of certain gods and couldn't have been the chief high priests as shown in the film.

* SpecialEffectsFailure:

* UnfortunateImplications: [[http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/exodus-set-photo-european-sphinx/ The whole film has drawn heavy criticism for whitewashing the nationalities of the people who were in the events of Exodus]]. This only magnified in backlash when it was revealed that slaves and minor characters are still people of color but all the main leads and royalty are now white, and even the Great Sphinx statue is redesigned to look more Caucasian. [[https://www.vox.com/2014/11/26/7296507/ridley-scott-exodus Further criticism]] was garnered from Scott's jusitification of the choice:
-->'''[[https://variety.com/2014/film/news/ridley-scott-exodus-gods-and-kings-christian-bale-1201363668/ Ridley Scott]]''': I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such.

* UnfortunateImplications: [[http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/exodus-set-photo-european-sphinx/ The whole film has drawn heavy criticism for whitewashing the nationalities of the people who were in the events of Exodus]]. This only magnified in backlash when it was revealed that slaves and minor characters are still people of color but all the main leads and royalty are now white, and even the Great Sphinx statue is redesigned to look more Caucasian.

* HilariousInHindsight: Christian Bale once played UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} in a TV movie. Now he's playing another icon of religion. He was also supposed to play the titular character from [[Creator/DarrenAronofsky Darren Aronofsky's]] ''Film/{{Noah}}'', in which that film had Scott's usual leading man Creator/RussellCrowe!

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* ToughActToFollow: After the acclaim of previous ''Exodus'' epics like ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' and ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', this film already had big shoes to fill in delivering its own spin on the story.

* PinBallProtagonist: Moses seems to just act as a mouthpiece for God and does nothing to influence his own story - bouncing from plot point to plot point without any apparent motivation.

** [[https://youtu.be/lDsqsk7coHg this promotional video.]] Just... wow.

** Many of the moments with the most potential to be visually striking (the burning bush, the pillar and wall of fire, many of the plagues) were written out of the story, leaving audiences familiar with the source material disappointed.

* WhatTheHellCastingAgency: Casting white actors in the main Egyptian roles.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: One of the reasons attributed to the box office returns or lack thereof was that people simply weren't interested in the story of Moses, a powerful and spiritual tale, turned into another Scott sword-and-sandals battle epic.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Right when the first trailer hit, mostly everyone was talking about the cast being white rather than the actual film itself. After the movie dropped with low ratings, the RaceLift will be the only thing anyone will remember the movie for.
** In an interview before the movie, Bale said “I think [Moses] was likely schizophrenic and was one of the most barbaric individuals that I ever read about in my life." [[SarcasmMode Yeah, that's not gonna alienate the demographics most likely to see this film, right?]]

** The parting of the Red Sea left many underwhelmed, as the sea doesn't so much part as it recedes into an enormous hanging tsunami.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Critics concluded that it was a pretty bad film, but the visuals and imagery sure looked nice. Elsewhere Joel Edgerton turns in the most honest performance of the movie as Ramses.

* UnfortunateImplications: [[http://www.dailydot.com/entertainment/exodus-set-photo-european-sphinx/ The whole film has drawn heavy criticism for white washing the nationalities of the people who were in the events of Exodus]]. This only magnified in backlash when it was revealed that slaves and minor characters are still people of color but all the main leads and royalty are now white, and even the Great Sphinx statue is redesigned to look more Caucasian.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Pretty much anyone not named Moses or Ramses. Miriam and Queen Tuya just disappear during Moses's exile, while Nun dies before his screen time clocks the ten minute mark. Zipporah is barely used at all.

* InternetBackdraft: As noted in "Broken Base" and "Unfortunate Implications", the casting choices have certainly spawned some controversy, to the point in which a [[http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/will-you-join-the-boycott-exodus-movement-20140720 petition]] was made to boycott the film.

** More of a "They Wasted a Perfectly Good Actor" case but Ben Kingsley would have been a better Moses than Christian Bale.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Critics concluded that it was a pretty bad film, but the visuals and imagery sure looked nice. Elsewhere Joel Edgerton turns in the most honest performance of the movie as Ramesses.