Tut (2015)

If you think about it : unkind Fate rather had it in for Tutankhamun. Yes, he was adored as a living god and yes, he lived amidst unimaginable opulence ; but at the same time he lived through ferociously unhinged and hate-filled times, he lost many of his nearest and dearest and he died very young, possibly in great agony. There even exists a sporting chance someone murdered him. As if all this wasn't awful enough, his rest was disturbed and his grave was opened by people he would doubtlessly have considered helpers of the Evil One.This seems more than enough for one unlucky person, but no, things get worse : ever since the twentieth century he has turned into a magnet for purple prose and overwrought fantasies. Witness this series, which clearly belongs in the historical melodrama class, subcategory "intrigue-riddled court". The series suffers from two serious flaws : 1) it has a melodramatic plot, weak dialogue and a feeble screenplay and 2) it does not succeed in creating characters whose belief system, world view and religion are deeply, radically different from ours. It is, of course, the last flaw which torpedoes the whole enterprise beyond any hope of rescue : the viewers never forget that they are watching people from, say, 2014 or 2015 who dressed up in antique garments. One would not be surprised to see a high priest toting a smartphone or reading the Miami Herald. As a result I can't really recommend the series, although most of the actors do their best to rise above the mediocre material. And no, the series isn't "so bad that it becomes good" : it is too annoying and boring for that.

To say it frankly: There is a bit of truth there. There was an pharaoh named Tutanchamun, there was Achenseamon, there was Aj and Haremheb. And yes, there was Egypt. Everything else shown in this mini series is Star-Gate class nonsense mixed with utter lies and insults both to the history and real historical characters. There is no other way to describe it as some actions and happenings in the movie are not just ignorant, they are intentionally deceiving and insulting. First: Yes, the father of Tutankhamun, Amenhotep IV aka Akhentaten founded monotheistic religion. Christians seem to love this story, yet it is not related to their monotheism at all (Aten was a form of Sun-God Ra, really not related to Yahve). It was horrible failure that almost lead Egypt to its demise. Tutankhamun did not support this religion, in fact he RENAMED himself from Tut-ankh-Aten (Living Image of Aten) to Tut-ankh-Amun (Living image of Amun, the very god depicted in movie as a source of his problems). The king decided to erase cult of Aten and restore old gods. He was not rebel, he was restorer of old regime. The people loved him for doing that as the Amun was too abstract and not popular. Second: He was married and loved Achnseamon and had two children with her, both aborted because of inbreeding problems. However he loved her and they seemed to have short yet happy marriage. Every scene in the movie depicting her is just a horrible insult to her. Everyting else: Practically everything in the movie is one way or another just wrong, from the fact Tut never participated in combat to the internal shape of Tuts tomb in the end. It is JUST PLAIN WRONG. What is maybe even worse I can clearly see an attempt to build the plot of the movie on novel Pharaoh by Boleslaw Prus, which is based on life of completely different pharaoh (Ramesse XIII) from significantly later era. This is still fiction yet so much better. Link to the movie based on the novel is here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060401/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2Please, Americans: Stop believing such crap. Force your filmmakers to stop making such crap. The opinion that Americans are culturally and historically ignorant is based on movies like this.

Obviously no one knows exactly what happened during Tut's reign but there has been enough discovered Spike could have still done an excellent series using a little more fact. If you like elaborate costumes, scenery and intrigue it's good. If you are hoping for more of a true depiction you will be disappointed. Was so excited to watch on Netflix since this was my favorite time in history and finally had to pretend it was a story I did not know...which it sort of was.

This is truly awful, it is fictional melodrama rather than historical drama. Character development is on the level of caricature (boo the villains everyone). Acting is very average all of which makes it impossible to believe in, or sympathize with the characters. Having a few basic facts and writing a story around them, still born children and a broken leg, is not enough to justify a mini-series. It is hard to find any good points, fans of Ben Kingsley will be disappointed by his portrayal of a very one dimensional villain and the other actors cannot raise the story above the predictable. All in all this is a waste of air time, indeed it is six hours of your life that you will never get back.Give this one a miss.