Gods of Egypt sucks… Well, at least that’s the general consensus that most movie critics have come to. A movie that suffered from immense controversy even prior to its release, Gods of Egypt hit theaters this weekend to near universal panning by the film community. This didn’t sit well with director Alex Proyas, and he decided to voice his opinion on the matter. Trust me, it’s possibly more entertaining than the movie itself.
Gods of Egypt director Alex Proyas has taken to Facebook with some harsh words for the film critic community. Here’s just a small sample of his rather long-winded rant:
…You see, my dear fellow FBookers, I have rarely gotten great reviews… on any of my movies, apart from those by reviewers who think for themselves and make up their own opinions. Sadly those type of reviewers are nearly all dead. Good reviews often come many years after the movie has opened. I guess I have the knack of rubbing reviewers the wrong way - always have. This time of course they have bigger axes to grind - they can rip into my movie while trying to make their mainly pale asses look so politically correct by screaming "white-wash!!!" like the deranged idiots they all are…
The overall message he seems to want to get across is that many critics seem to have jumped the gun with their negative opinions of Gods of Egypt. Long before the film even hit theaters, or even premiered for press screenings, people started forming their own thoughts about it, leveling mass accusations of white-washing upon the film. He then goes on to claim that the profession of film criticism is a dying art anyway, as the advent of social media platforms allow people the opportunity to criticize movies themselves.
There’s a certain degree of validity to his initial claims. Many people developed a negative outlook towards Gods of Egypt before they had even seen it. In his own opinion, the pervasive negative attitude towards the film tainted the critic community, and prevented anyone from going into Gods of Egypt with an open mind. He then goes on to assert that even the critics who did enjoy the film walked on egg shells with their positive reviews so as not to go against the popular opinion of the film critic community.
However, isn’t that what trailers are for? We could kind of already tell that this movie had the possibility of being less than stellar. Gods of Egypt has been panned by critics for far more reasons than just the white-washing aspect. It’s an incomprehensible mess of low-quality CGI, and hammy acting. I agree with him when he says that film critics need to try harder to ensure objectivity in their reviews, but using a slog like Gods of Egypt is not the platform to make such an argument.
Gods of Egypt is in theaters now; if you don’t trust the opinion of mainstream film critics then be sure to give it a watch and let us know what you think.
