Gods of Egypt (2016)

The ancient Greeks made many of the scientific discoveries that are still used today.  Pythagorean Theorem is one of the most important mathematical equations, laying the foundations for triangles.  Triangles are the building blocks of everything.  The ancient Greeks discovered buoyancy too.  Most importantly, they realized that the Earth is round.  They knew before anyone else.

During the dark ages, much of history was forgotten.  Yet, the world being round stuck around.  When Christopher Columbus landed in America, he had thought he was going to end up in Japan or another Asian country.  He was trying to find a shortcut by going around the world.  Culture in those times didn’t believe that the world was flat.  They knew it was round.  Christopher Columbus planned on using this to better the trade routes.  Well, it seems like he planned on that.  He could have had other reasons, but I’m not him, so I don’t know.  Either way, he was going around the world, not over the edge.

When astronauts went into space, they saw Earth.  They sent pictures back to show what Earth looked like.  It wasn’t a flat disk that had all of the land masses on it.  Earth was a round mass, not completely spherical but close to it, that rotated.  The images showed that.  The spacecraft went around the planet, able to see that everything was there as they went around.  Earth was not flat.

Yet, for some reason, there has been a movement of people who still believe that Earth is flat.  The International Flat Earth Society was created in 1956, and promoted the idea that the round Earth was a lie.  By the turn of the millennium, it had died out.  It was restarted in 2004, and has been going ever since.  The internet helped to spread the Flat Earth ideas.  It allowed people from around the world to connect with each other and share their thoughts about the theory.  It also allowed more critics of the ideas to come along with research to disprove them.  The two sides will never agree on how the Earth is laid out, however, so both sides will continue to exist.

This has been a long winded way to get to this week’s movie, but it’s relevant.  Gods of Egypt was released in 2016 to less than stellar reviews.  Bek (Brenton Thwaites) was a mortal living in Egypt.  When Set (Gerard Butler) murdered Osiris (Bryan Brown) to take the throne, he teamed up with Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) to retake the throne and bring Egypt out of Set’s tyranny.  Bek also wanted Horus to bring his significant other, Zaya (Courtney Eaton), back to life.

Gods of Egypt was basically a Clash of the Titans style action, adventure, mythical history movie.  The characters went into the great pyramids to try and put out the fire of the desert.  Bek dodged his way through a series of obstacles to get Horus’s eye.  They fought atop a giant obelisk, and fought atop a giant waterfall.  The gods could turn into Egyptian animal-type of beings when fighting one another.  They had weapons and powers.  A mortal man, Bek, was brought into all of the god fighting, much like the audience was brought into the world.  The most relevant piece of this adventure to what has been written so far was Bek and Horus’s trip to see Ra (Geoffrey Rush).

Ra was the sun god.  He controlled day and night.  His home was a small station in space that he would use to fight off a world eating monster that came every night.  He was the father of Set and Osiris.  Horus took a trip to the station in an attempt to get Ra to help him defeat Set.  Ra didn’t want to help, and sent Horus back to Egypt to find his own way to save the people.

While Horus, who had brought Bek along, was visiting Ra, the audience was shown the Egypt of the movie.  The sun was being dimmed down for the night, and moved from one side of a disk to another.  That disk was Egypt.  That disk was Earth.  That’s right, Gods of Egypt was a flat Earth movie, giving a visual representation of what the flat Earth would look like from space.  The characters never mentioned the flat Earth.  They never discussed the two theories.  The Earth was simply flat and that was that.  It was the world of Gods of Egypt.

This isn’t to say that Alex Proyas, the director of Gods of Egypt, is or was a flat Earth believer.  All that is being said is that Gods of Egypt is a flat Earth movie because it features a flat Earth in it.  It was likely just a visual flourish in a movie that was focused on visuals.  It was something interesting to show the audience that was different from what other movies were showcasing.  There was a unique touch to it.  Did it make the movie any better or worse?  No.  It was different though.  Sometimes that’s all that counts.

People who believe in a flat Earth may have taken Gods of Egypt to heart.  With a full on visual representation of a flat Earth, there’s something big for them to bite onto.  It wasn’t a mention of flat Earth (positive or negative), and it wasn’t anything that looked like a map of a flat Earth.  It was a disk that they could see and point to and say “That’s a flat Earth!”  Gods of Egypt was a form of proof for them.

The ancient Greeks discovered that the world was round.  The explorers of the middle ages and renaissance used this knowledge to travel the world.  Astronauts have brought back pictures of Earth to show to the people living on it.  There’s a treasure trove of proof that the world is round.  Some people still choose to believe that the world is flat, and they’ll find whatever they can in movies that will support their claims.  Sometimes it can seem very conspiracy like.  In the case of Gods of Egypt, the flat Earth reference is right in the audience’s face.  Kind of like the proof of a round Earth is in most people’s faces.  Though the debate will never fully be settled, it’s an important subject to have knowledge on.

A little less important are these notes:

• Gods of Egypt was suggested by @FranchiseFred, who has also suggested Officer Downe (week 242) and Vulgar (week 269).
• Gerard Butler played Set in Gods of Egypt.  He was previously featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Playing for Keeps (week 21), Timeline (week 222), and Movie 43 (week 243).
• Two actors from I, Frankenstein (week 217) were in Gods of Egypt.  They were Goran D. Kleut and Bruce Spence.
• Finally, Kenneth Ransom made an appearance in Gods of Egypt after showing up in Ghost Rider (week 260).
• Have you seen Gods of Egypt?  What were your thoughts?  What do you think of the flat Earth theory?  Why am I writing any of this?  Let me know in the comments.
• The comments can also be the place for you to let me know about what movies I should check out for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I’m always looking for things to watch, and your suggestions help.  Twitter is another place to let me know about movies.
• Sometimes when I’m watching bad movies, I share clips on my snapchat account.  If that sounds interesting, add me (jurassicgriffin).  Not many people have, so it doesn’t hurt me too much if you don’t.
• This is not the end of the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I’ve got another movie coming up for you guys next week.  What is it?  The Ugly Duckling and Me will be coming to the Sunday “Bad” Movies next week.  You’ll see what it is and what I have to say about it in seven days.  See you then.