Exodus: Gods and Kings: Ridley Scott presents a sumptuous spectacle; the use of locations, the set design (including visual effects), costume design, all create a great-looking physical world. That, however, does not a good movie make; the storytelling is stale and stiff and it carries no beauty or subtlety whatsoever. The characters are all unappealing, uninteresting; the overblown, over-the-top acting further complicates matters, wasting the strong names in the cast. (In fact, the interesting choice of using a child as a major player in the story is all but ruined by the weak performance.)