Plot Summary
Moses, a Hebrew, grew up in Egypt, raised by the royal family, but after being driven from the land for committing a crime, he was forced to live in the desert among the Midianites. He though his lot in life was to live among the Midianites forever, but God had other plans as He called Moses to go back to Egypt to free His chosen people, the Hebrews, from slavery. Reluctantly, Moses went back to be the deliverer of his people and to witness God’s wonders.
Production Quality (2 points)
It’s clear that a lot of time and money was put into this made-for-television miniseries. Video quality and camera work are professional, as are audio quality and soundtrack. Sets, locations, and props are realistic and historically authentic. However, there are some cheap special effects throughout that put a damper on things. Also, although this miniseries is nearly three hours long, the editing is still poor as some content is cut off while other content is given too much time. However, overall, this is a respectable and well-funded effort.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Unfortunately, that’s where the complements end. It seems like anytime a mainstream company, even when they are joined by a Christian company, tries to make a Bible production, it fails miserable. There are obviously exceptions to this (The Passion of the Christ and Nativity Story), it happens a lot. This rendition of The Ten Commandments is filled with incessant heavy-handed narration that tries to force the audience to get to know the characters too quickly. Narration also serves as a bridge for the plot, which speeds by at breakneck pace, while at the same time committing unnecessary historical and Biblical inaccuracies. Though it’s ambitious to take on so much content in a miniseries, it’s almost too much content to handle, especially when time is spent on strange and seemingly useless portions of this story, in addition to all the unnecessary extra-Biblical content. Besides these issues, there is a lot of cheesy sensationalism through this series, including a strange portrayal of God. Thus, historical truth is freely edited and added to as the writers see fit. Basically, where this could have been an interesting series, it fails.
Acting Quality (0 points)
Once again, this series is another instance of culturally inauthentic casting, including blatant BRITISH cast members and actors with ages that do not match the historical character they are plating. Besides these issues, line delivery is quite poor, even though these are supposed to be professional actors and actresses. Sometimes they are too dramatic and forceful with their emotions. Makeup is also a huge problem as it is mostly overdone. In the end, this is another disappointing section.
Continuity Quality (1 points)
Though there are some interesting character buildups throughout this series, their age progression is not historically correct. Some success is found here in using the series format to create character arcs, even as the story arcs are already written for them. Time transitions are also intriguing, but as previously mentioned, they usually move way too fast to try to cover too much time. In the end, this miniseries leaves a lot of potential behind.
Conclusion
There is little to no point in trying to rewrite history in order to sell entertainment, whether it’s on the big screen or the TV screen. When you already have the story laid out for you in a historical document, what’s the point of altering it? What would someone think if a creator altered a different historical account that’s not in the Bible? The Bible is not something to play with and change for convenience. But don’t get too cocky, Christian film makers—you’ve done it too. Perhaps one day we will have a high quality Biblical series or miniseries that will be worth celebrating.
Final Rating: 3 out of 14 points
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