I heard this movie was good.
I watched the CGI intro, and it looked right between the Skorpion King and Stargate.
(full disclosure: I am lying. I want this movie to be good so much that I am ready to ignore it, and watch it wen is available for free somewhere in tv or whatever).
I remember reading on line posts by people who were pissed off that they would dare use “white” actors in these roles. I assumed the film must be a serious effort at some kind of biblical Egyptian thing. When I saw the trailer I wondered why anyone would care who was in this movie. I am not surprised this has bombed.
Regardless of the non-historic nature of the movie, it is weird to use white actors.
For example, it’d be weird to have the mythological Chinese movie the Monkey King filmed with all the Chinese gods being played by white actors, even setting aside any sort of institutional bias/racism.
Admittedly, this is a somewhat akin to the controversy with Idris Elba played Heimdall in the Thor movies. I think that was fine because the Marvel universe is much more fictional, but this “universe” might be, as well.
Yeah, not to get too P&R in here, but the whitewashing controversy was goofy. This movie’s tie to Egyptian mythology was about as authentic and strong as the tie Stargate had to its Egyptian mythology. Stargate played lip service to the setting by casting the ethnic-looking Jaye Davidson as Ra, Mili Avital as the love interest, and Erick Avari as the tribe leader. Note that none of those actors are Egyptian.
It would’ve been nice to have an Egyptian actor in this, but that’s a pretty small list. Ahmed Ezz or Amr Waked definitely could’ve taken any of the roles here, and I don’t think it would’ve hurt the film.
I’m okay with not being exactly Egyptian, but at least generally the same ethnicity or at least the look would be fine. White actors are generally interchangeable, even in roles that are specific white nationalities.
You guys sure you aren’t thinking about Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings? I remember that movie catching a lot of grief for being full of white people, despite being a story about Moses leading his people out of slavery.
I’m not saying more diversity wouldn’t be good, just that the singling out of this movie was odd. Other than the character names and art design, this movie was as Egyptian as the last Transformers movie, so complaining that it needed more ethnic-looking characters misses the mark to me. (Speaking of which, bravo to Transformers 4 for having a whole section take place in China with real Chinese actors.) I’d much rather direct ire at situations like the one in Aloha for casting Emma Stone as a Hawaiian part-Chinese character. That’s some serious whitewashing.
Edit: Scott’s movie is actually a much better example to me. Thanks Pogue!
Bravo? It was done to increase its standing/appeal in the Chinese market and thus the chances of it getting released in China to begin with. Wouldn’t be surprised if a Chinese company contributed to the budget. I wouldn’t consider the Chinese cast of T4 a feat worth applauding.
T4 ended up making for than $400m in China, IIRC.
My recollection about that was that people failed to understand the story. IIRC, the movie was based on the story of a real-life Hawaiian who, while having ethnic roots, looked totally white (e.g., she was a redhead) and faced discrimination because of it. In that case, I think casting someone who doesn’t look, at all, Hawaiian seems appropriate. It’s the premise of the whole story. Admittedly, I haven’t seen the movie so I don’t know how important the whole doesn’t-look-Hawaiian angle is to film.
Oh, I know what the China segment of the movie was about. Hollywood has been cozying up to China any way it can.
You and I agree that it was a terrible movie. I just think the Chinese portion of the story was executed well for what they were doing. They didn’t just toss a Chinese actor into the cast to appeal to the target market. They moved the story to China for the climax and made the location part of the plot.
Stargate is almost 20 years old. Everything was whitewashed in the 60s too. Are we supposed to be okay with it now because in the 50s and 60s even the mino4i5y actors who won awards weren’t allowed to sit with everyone else?
It’s time for Hollywood to grow up and at least try. The other example is perfect. We’re already giving passes to Chinese actors playing Japanese characters in several movies… but at least the characters were Asian. I mean can you imagine Memoirs of a Geisha with every cast member being white? It just doesn’t make sense.
Sure, but Memoirs of a Geisha was absolutely trying to be realistic and portray Japanese people in a Japanese story. (I’ll still point out that most of the main cast was not Japanese!) If Memoirs of a Geisha was about people transforming into robot animals and having laser sword fights, I’d be less inclined to give a shit who stars in it.
These are Egyptian gods and it takes place in Egypt. People flipped their shit because a black man played Nick Fury. You honestly think if they created a movie based on Rome or Greece, gods and all, and everyone in it was black there would’t be an even larger backlash? Is there movie out there with someone black playing Zeus?
Okay, let’s see if I can make this clear. The people that flipped out when Sam Jackson played Nick Fury, John Boyega played a stormtrooper, or Will Smith played James West based on the actors’ skin color are tools.
I would love to see Zeus played by a black guy. Or an Asian. Or anything other than an older white guy. Since Zeus is a fictional god in a dead pantheon, I have no investment in who plays him. Same with the Egyptian gods in this movie. Like I said, it would’ve been nice if someone like Amr Waked had been cast, but since this is a movie in which the “gods” transform into robo-animals, I don’t put as much importance on being true to the ethnocentric origins of the mythology.
I’ll tell you what, when a fictional Storm Trooper, Nick Fury, Hermoine and you know any other character can be played by a member of a different race without a huge uproar that all of these received, then I will be okay with Gods of Egypt being as whitewashed as it is. Even the thief was white in this movie, not just gods. I think it’s important, but I am not at all surprised other people are still okay with these movies being as white-washed as they are.
So in other words, you’re okay with Gods of Egypt being as whitewashed as it is. Cool. I think we all agree it’s a non-issue.
Because there was no “huge uproar” about Nick Fury or Finn being black. There was instead a disprportionate amount of attention given to a very small number of people whining to get attention, and an idiotic media willing to give them that attention. Manufactured outrage for the sake of clicks is not an uproar.
-Tom
I think we agree that more diversity throughout Hollywood would be awesome. I also think that if there’s a part in which the character’s skin color doesn’t matter, then the actor’s skin color shouldn’t matter. You and I just differ on when that matters.
Back on the topic of the movie, Alex Proyas has lost it.
You might be right. I do remember Ridley Scott being part of the conversation. Whatever happened to that movie?
Isn’t that really the purpose of making films, to make money. Sure, I know, culture and all that BS but it is really about money.
My last comment on the off topic subject of “whitewashing”…I think we are seeing important changes in non-movie race roles in TV shows and in commercials. It is very common now to see mixed couples in TV commercials, and a quick look at TV shows me some traditional “white” roles being played by black actors. For instance, Jimmy Olson.