One of the most fabled stories of the Old Testament gets a new interpretation in this CGI-animated feature. When the Pharaoh of Egypt sentences Hebrew children to their death, the mother of baby Moses floats the child down the River Nile in a basket, hoping he will be found by people who give him a chance at a better life. The baby is found by the Pharaoh's daughter, and is raised as an Egyptian prince. However, when the true heritage of Moses (voice of Christian Slater) is discovered, he is
banished from Egypt. As Moses wanders through the desert, he encounters a burning bush, from which the voice of God (voice of Elliott Gould) can be heard. God tells Moses it is his destiny to lead the Hebrews from slavery to a new life in the Holy Land. With the power of God as his ally, Moses confronts the Pharaoh Ramses (voice of Alfred Molina) and demands freedom for his people. Ramses scoffs at Moses, and with the help of the Lord the Hebrew messenger brings a series of plagues down on the Egyptian people as he repeats his demand for freedom for the Jews. The first feature-length directorial credit for Bill Boyce and John Stronach, The Ten Commandments also features the voice talents of Ben Kingsley as the story's narrator. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Though it boasts a noteworthy cast, the film suffers from clunky computer animation that appears to be hinged on technology at least several years behind the curve.
This is the inaugural film in a franchise of 12 feature films based on Bible stories, using a crude form of three-dimensional computer animation. One can only hope that the future entries in the series are better executed than this first one.
The characters' skin looks like hard plastic, so it's as if a bunch of GI Joes are trying to escape the plague of locusts, and all of the human characters appear to be lit from within, like nightlights.
A beyond-unimpressive computer-animated retelling of the story of Moses, The Ten Commandments seems to have been made using public-domain software, and targeted squarely at kids impressed by any brightly colored moving objects.
Where the filmmakers may have aimed to create something comparable to Shrek, instead the quality falls somewhere between that and the movers in the 1985 Dire Straits' Money for Nothing video.
The story is obvious so let's look to other concerns about this movie:
The voice over is great concerning Moses, but some of the other's are unconvincing. The animation is a little sketchy as sometimes it seems as if people are moving way to fast and sometimes do not move as clean cut as some animation films I have
seen. This is 2008 and that is unexcuseable for any film.
However, the story was told well and down to the tee-in which that made it slightly enjoyable. I think it could of been more children related, as it is animated, however my little nephew that I sit down to watch it with was hardly engaged. The dialogue at time seemed a bit stale.
Dont let this review stop you from watching this one though. It's not by all means a BAD movie, but for an animation film in todays age, it's lacking.
No quotes approved yet for The Ten Commandments. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'The Ten Commandments'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
69%
——
97%
Top Critic
