“Exceptional
Beings”
Movie
Review
Njedeh Anthony, the
writer/director, wrote Exceptional Beings as a prequel to his novel Godhood.
Anthony and co-director Christian Kazadi take their time explaining what's
going on. Exceptional Beings begins with Mina Bihary (Rachel Thundat) being
visited by two unexpected visitors with clearly godlike abilities. This is due
to the fact that they are Athena (Ciarra Carter) and her brother Hermes (Dane
Oliver).
What brought them here?
Even when they don't want to be seen, Mina can see them and other gods. That's
something a normal mortal shouldn't be able to do, and it begs the question, if
she's not a mortal or a god, what is she? And how does her presence influence
them?
Hermes then instructs Mina
to observe a couple, Daniel (Clark Moore) and his pregnant wife Xena (Sarah
Bonrepaux), on the day she tells him she no longer loves him. Mina appears
perplexed as to why, but the viewer should understand.
Poseidon (Eric Roberts)
and Methuselah make brief appearances (Jean Charles). Jesus, Noah, and the ark
are also mentioned. Unfortunately, Satan, Kali, and The Flying Spaghetti
Monster all fail to appear.
Apollo is referred to as
male, played by a woman (Victoria Antonelli), and has a voice that switches
between the two depending on his mood. "If Charlton Heston can be Moses, I
can be an American ginger," Hermes says of Athena, who appears to be from
Africa rather than Greece. Of course, there are also lines like "You
hedonistic, incestuous, horndog". And you have to give credit to the
actors in the scene for maintaining a straight face when it's delivered.
Unfortunately, that is the
other major omission in Exceptional Beings. There's a lot of dialogue that's
supposed to be profound, but most of it is pretentious, shallow, and doesn't
really tell us anything. The script doesn't deliver anything other than
fancy-sounding platitudes and mystic mumbo jumbo until the conversation between
Athena and Methuselah.
Even when I found out what
was going on, I was disappointed. Yes, the big reveal in relation to Athena's
opinion of humans is ironic, but it also involves the writer pulling a new,
omnipotent character out of his asses, a Deus ex gluteus maximus if you will.
It's an insult to anyone who hasn't figured out the story by that point.
There is some amusing
dialogue, such as Athena stating that Methuselah was not what she expected and
him asking if she expected Morgan Freeman. There are also a few fights and some
decent low-budget CGI and green screen, such as the scene in Poseidon's lair.
But that's far from enough to compensate for the agonizing dialogue you have to
endure to get to them. And there is a post-credits scene, but I doubt anyone
will stay for it. If you enjoy Njedeh Anthony's novels, particularly Godhood,
you might enjoy Exceptional Beings better.
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