gods-of-egypt-2dStarring Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster Waldau, Elodie Yung, Courtney Eaton and Geoffrey Rush

Directed by Alex Proyas

Entertainment One, out now

An epic battle for the future of humanity…

Gods of Egypt is hardly likely to hit anyone’s Top 10 Films of All Time – to be honest, it’s not got much chance at a Top 10 Films featuring gods of Egypt – but it is a surprisingly entertaining two hours of CGI mayhem, acting that’s taken Colin Baker and Paul Darrow’s guest turns on each other’s SF TV shows as its template, and a reworking of mythology and history. “Only one god can survive,” we’re informed – so do we root for evil Butler as Set (giving us yet more appreciation for Gabriel Woolf’s performances) or Coster Waldau’s Horus? (The film gives us some huge clues!)

In an interview in December last year, director Proyas told Forbes magazine that “it is not set in Ancient Egypt at all” which, given that it states the world is flat, may not come as a great surprise to those watching. This was an attempt to deal with the issue of the “whitewashing” of the cast, which is very noticeable; at times it feels like those twee Christmas cards where the Holy Family is so clearly being portrayed as a middle class white suburban family slumming it in a stable for a couple of hours. But frankly, this is such hokum that thinking of it as a badly cast fantasy film rather than having any basis in reality in terms of diversity is probably better!

Marco Beltrami’s score is one of the film’s better qualities (his theme for Elodie “Elektra” Yung’s Hathor is haunting) and there’s some enjoyable CG fighting. It’s quite definitely a film to stick in the Blu-ray/DVD player and switch your brain off for a couple of hours while you watch.

The Blu-ray includes assorted featurettes on the effects, hair and make up, location shooting in Australia and the cast (the DVD only has a couple of them).

Verdict: Entertaining hokum on a grand scale. 6/10

Paul Simpson