Following the debut of its first trailer a few months ago, it looked like the best we could hope for Gods of Egypt was that it could be this year’s Winter’s Tale — a totally bonkers and baffling, yet stupidly entertaining blockbuster misfire. Reviews have been less than kind to Alex Proyas’ latest effort, which was clouded with controversy due to its primarily white cast. Proyas isn’t too thrilled with those reviews, as the director has shared a lengthy message targeting critics.

Thanks to the terrible trailers and the white-washing controversy (made even more baffling by Proyas’ own Egyptian heritage), Lionsgate and Proyas were going to have a pretty tough time with Gods of Egypt. Budgeted at an astonishing $140 million, the film flopped in its opening weekend with just $14 million. Instead of accepting his failure for what it is, Proyas took to Facebook to blast critics for their negative reviews — to be fair, while the film is terrible, most critics still found it entertaining, with our own Matt Singer noting that although the film is “weirder and goofier than you expected,” it certainly never left him bored. (It did, however, inspire him to create a new “¯_(ツ)_/¯ out of `10" rating.)

Still, Proyas has rushed to defend Gods of Egypt, calling critics “deranged idiots” and “diseased vultures” for negatively reviewing his film (maybe he failed to read Amy Nicholson’s positive review for MTV). Oh, what a strange, sad hill to die on:

NOTHING CONFIRMS RAMPANT STUPIDITY FASTER…
Than reading reviews of my own movies. I usually try to avoid the experience - but this one takes the cake. Often, to my great amusement, a critic will mention my past films in glowing terms, when at the time those same films were savaged, as if to highlight the critic’s flawed belief of my descent into mediocrity. You see, my dear fellow FBookers, I have never gotten great reviews… on any movie I’ve made really, apart from those by reviewers who think for themselves and make up their own opinions. Sadly those type of reviewers are nearly all dead. I guess I have the knack of rubbing reviewers the wrong way - always have. This time of course they have bigger axes to grind - they can rip into my movie while trying to make their mainly pale asses look so politically correct by screaming “white-wash!!!” like the deranged idiots they all are. They fail to understand, or chose to pretend to not understand what this movie is, so as to serve some bizarre consensus of opinion which has nothing to do with the movie at all. That’s ok, this modern age of texting will probably make them go the way of the dinosaur or the newspaper shortly - don’t movie-goers text their friends with what they thought of a movie? Seems most critics spend their time trying to work out what most people will want to hear. How do you do that? Why these days it is so easy… just surf the net to read other reviews or what bloggers are saying - no matter how misguided an opinion of a movie might be before it actually comes out. Lock a critic in a room with a movie no one has even seen and they will not know what to make of it. Because contrary to what a critic should probably be they have no personal taste or opinion, because they are basing their views on the status quo. None of them are brave enough to say “well I like it” if it goes against consensus. Therefore they are less than worthless. Now that anyone can post their opinion about anything from a movie to a pair of shoes to a hamburger, what value do they have - nothing. Roger Ebert wasn’t bad. He was a true film lover at least, a failed film-maker, which gave him a great deal of insight. His passion for film was contagious and he shared this with his fans. He loved films and his contribution to cinema as a result was positive. Now we have a pack of diseased vultures pecking at the bones of a dying carcass. Trying to peck to the rhythm of the consensus. I applaud any film-goer who values their own opinion enough to not base it on what the pack-mentality say is good or bad.

Proyas isn’t being entirely accurate in his assertion that his films have always been negatively reviewed upon release. The Crow and Dark City both received mostly positive appraisals, and I, Robot carries a slightly-above-middling 58 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Speaking of The Crow, Proyas chatted with Collider about Corin Hardy’s delayed remake of his graphic novel adaptation, calling the idea “unnecessary,” a notion with which many fans would agree — though the same could be said for an insane fantasy film about Egyptian mythology with a mostly white cast.

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