EXODUS: Can't wait to see it after all the criticism I've read...

I love movies based on religious stories (Bible stories) and have ever since childhood. My wife watches the old TEN COMMANDMENTS every time it comes on, year after year after year.

This year we had NOAH which was an interesting take on the Bible story to say the least. THE RED TENT I have already talked about and how I liked it.

The movie I am waiting for is EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS coming out shortly but I cannot believe all the criticism I am already hearing way before I have even seen it.

One issue that I have heard about is the fact that there are no miracles per se and so the movie loses that religious touch that everybody seems to be after. I can understand that since I believe people are emotional taken with stories that visually present what they already believe.

As in the Red Tent series, God was basically kept out of the story and the story stood quite well on its own merits as a story of a family portrayed in the Old Testament.

The EXODUS story in the Bible is historically very dubious as even archaeological data finds absolutely no evidence of a large group of people leaving Egypt, wondering in the Sanai for years and then invading the Levant. Actually the settling of Israel, according to excavated data, happened slowly over time and not in one fell swoop.

You also would think that with Egyptians chronicling almost all events throughout their history, they would have mentioned something about an Exodus or at least about all the Jewish slaves working in Egypt.

But it is a Bible story and it was written for a purpose and that is to give the Jews a story they could hang their hats on instead of just saying they eventually formed a nation / people after many years hanging around together.

So what is a director (Scott Ridley) to do? Does he tell it just like it is in the Bible or does he put his own spin on it trying to somehow explain the goings-on in a rational and believable way?

Well it is his story to tell after all just like Darren Aronofsky told the story of Noah in his way.

Sure Christians with a fundamentalist bent will complain that it is not how things really happened…really?

Some of the criticisms have to do with casting all white actors in the lead roles and non-whites in all the “lower” roles. Are they looking for believability? Is this a documentary?

I guess we all have some expectations of this movie and I for one will go with an open mind and see if I truly enjoyed it or was it just too bizarre to be a movie in the first place.