Review of Film (saw it first showing)

I was there in the theater in the first showing of The Ten Commandments, yesterday, as promised. Here's my review of the film...

The graphics are computer graphics, which as Meet the Robinsons and Jimmy Newtron can show, is not as detailed as hand drawn graphics but can produce some interesting effects. Once you get past that, though, the film is stellar.

The biggest thing that stood out to me is the plot changes from the Prince of Egypt and the dramatization of the actors. Specifically, this is the most LOVE I've seen in any Moses related movie, animated or otherwise. When I first heard that Elliot Gould was going to be God, I said, "Isn't he a little too soft spoken to be God in this film?" The same was true for the choice of Christian Slater as Moses. As it turns out, that is one of the biggest plusses of this film. You get the sense (as it was truly) that God doesn't want to do the plagues and judgment but is forced to do it. We can see this in the Scriptural story, as well. Moses, indeed, pleads with Pharaoh to save his people by submitting to God.

The film presents a Moses that is rejected and hated by Pharaoh and Ramses (the next Pharaoh) from the start, which Scripture portrays, unlike other films. This film accurately presents Moses as the Pharaoh's grandson (nephew to Ramses) unlike other films. In fact, there are literally dozens of things this film gets right that prior films got wrong from Scripture, even down to Aaron being told of God to meet Moses, prior to Moses going to see the Pharaoh. There are still things they get wrong (the same things other films got wrong), but this is the most accurate version I've seen.

Since Christ had not come in the time of Moses, yet, He couldn't be seen as anything but a fulfillment of the Moses typecast, and that is illustrated beautifully, here. Even the manna is distributed with Moses saying, "Bread from Heaven. Take, Eat..." With the tone of the voice, I half expected the next words to be "this is my body." Also, when he stood up before the tribes went into the promised land, he told them to cross "the river Jordon" to enter the promised land, an obvious point to the river where baptism had begun with John the Baptist and Christ. Further, the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins was a big theme at the end of this film.

In all, this was an excellent film. One note. At the end of the film the narrator says that no prophet has arisen, since that time, like Moses, seeing God face to face. You might see this as a Jewish attack on Christ, unless you knew that this was simply a verse quotation...

Deuteronomy 34:10 "And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face..."

Thus, by the time the book was written there wasn't such a prophet, though Moses predicted a prophet like him coming, and Christ claimed to be that prophet. One more note. When Moses appeared to Christ in the transfiguration, he was literally seeing God, face to face.

So, I say this film is Biblical, Christian, loving, and a fun experience for the family to see.

Ken Clifton
-Christian superhero guide author
www.christiansuperhero.com