Behold, the great, pale face of cinematic whitewashing has revealed itself once again, in a somewhat less egregious fashion, I suppose. Yes, “Gods of Egypt” casts primarily white actors in the main roles of Egyptian gods and commoners, with a sporadic mix of actors of color in the mix. Director Alex Proyas and Lionsgate have publicly issued apologies for this case of whitewashing ahead of time, something not done before on an occasion of whitewashing (Ridley Scott sought to defend his casting choices for “Exodus: Gods and Kings”), which at least showed some sort of caring over the subject matter. While I hold my own opinions on the state of whitewashing in Hollywood, none of them will affect my judgment on “Gods of Egypt,” as I will focus exclusively on whether the film is good or not.

For as many movies made about Egypt, not many have gone so far as to truly capture the true nature of Egypt as it has been told through history, with films like “Exodus: Gods and Kings” simply seeking to leave the audience bored through its bloated runtime, it almost looked like a blessing that “Gods of Egypt” didn’t seek any sort of serious credibility in itself from its trailers. In fact, it looked no more than a hammy piece of action cinema, seeking not much more than to show off how far CGI has come and to provide paychecks for those involved.

And I was right, to a lesser extent than I thought, though. But oh my god…I might have actually enjoyed “Gods of Egypt,” in a sense.

“Gods of Egypt” is an incredibly pretty film, but not necessarily a good one. From the start, it’s pretty obvious that the film isn’t taking itself seriously in any regard, apparent from its sloppy screenplay, but “Gods of Egypt” has an air of fun about it and though it was pretty inconsistent with that fun, what I did have was a blast. As being set in Egypt, the film focuses on Bek (Brenton Thwaites), a thief bent on providing a good life to his beloved Zaya (Courtney Eaton). But on the day of the coronation of the god-king Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), his sinister uncle, Set (Gerard Butler), crashes the party, kills Horus’ father, Osiris (Bryan Brown), blinds Horus and takes Egypt for himself, enslaving the public. After Zaya is put in jeopardy of death, Bek finds Horus’ missing eye and returns it to him in exchange for helping him save Zaya and to reclaim Egypt for his own.

I made the mistake of trying to take “Gods of Egypt” seriously for about half of the film, but when I realized that this film is roughly on the level of other films like “Pompeii” and “The Mummy” in terms of hamminess, I started to enjoy myself a lot more. The entire cast has done better work before, but there were a few standouts worth mentioning. As always, I am pleased to see Elodie Yung in big movies, as I feel her to be a star in the making and her role as Hathor, the goddess of love, does seem to help her, as she is the standout female performance in this film, even though her only competition was that of Eaton as Zaya. Chadwick Boseman as Thoth, the god of wisdom, was easily my favorite though, if not only for the sheer flamboyance of the performance. Boseman played greatly in the cheesiness of the script, not taking it too seriously like the audience shouldn’t. Boseman was the catalyst in me letting go of my emotions about the film and just letting it flow as it is, not as it should be.

Of course the screenplay is bad, the dialogue is cringe-worthy at times, which is the biggest weakness of “Gods of Egypt” hands down, as some of the more important scenes are marred by cheesy dialogue that doesn’t necessarily fit. There’s a time and a place for hammy one-liners, but “Gods of Egypt” seems to just say “f**k it” to those points and just injects them in the entire film. Luckily, the plot is unique enough, as Egyptian gods aren’t often focused upon and while it’s far from an accurate portrayal, it obviously is painting itself as fantasy, making it a bit easier to swallow. If only they knew how to speak without sounding like they are in a PSA.

What makes “Gods of Egypt” so enjoyable is its visuals, if not simply because this is one of the most visually tantalizing films in the past few months, with vivid colors and sweeping settings, the film is a large scale spectacle that truly begs to be seen in IMAX 3D. While I wasn’t able to view the film in IMAX before release, I was able to see the film in 3D, which is a completely worthwhile expenditure, as the film is bright enough to justify the glasses and the scale of the film makes it a perfect fit for the format, that is executed wonderfully. There are a few shots of the film where the CGI does falter a bit, but in the grand scheme of how wonderful this film looks as a whole, those can be forgiven.

I’m really conflicted with “Gods of Egypt,” as I know that it’s a pretty bad film, but a bad film that I had a lot of fun with, once I stopped caring about its quality. The acting is okay, with the cast having done much better work in the past. The screenplay is very sloppy at best, with some dialogue as hammy as the Black Forest. The visuals are utterly spectacular and worth seeing for this alone, especially in full IMAX 3D. Yet, a part of me can’t bring this film to a fully positive review, if not simply for the fact that the film is badly written, even in its own, winking way. This is the problem with reviewing B-movies, no matter how much fun you have, you can’t change the fact that it’s a B-movie

While I hand this film this specific score for obvious qualitative purposes, let it be known that “Gods of Egypt” is far more enjoyable than that of the other films I’ve handed this score to.

2.5/5

Photo courtesy of Summit Entertainment (Lionsgate)

Directed by: Alex Proyas
Starring: Nikolaj-Coster Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Chadwick Boseman, Elodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, with Gerard Butler and Geoffrey Rush
Rating: PG-13 for fantasy violence and action, and some sexuality.
Also available in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D

Summit Entertainment presents, a Thunder Road Pictures/Mystery Clock Cinema production, an Alex Proyas film, “Gods of Egypt”