The history of cinema is bookmarked by defining moments when pioneers dreamt, at considerable expense, outside the traditional 16:9 ratio of the big screen.

The 1933 version of King Kong, The Wizard Of Oz, Ben-Hur, Cleopatra, Star Wars, Jurassic Park and James Cameron's Titanic pushed the technology of the era to the limit in pursuit of jaw-dropping spectacle.

Cecil B DeMille's final picture, The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, sits proudly in that illustrious company.

Shot in blistering heat, the 1956 biblical epic was the most expensive film of its time and DeMille famously clambered up the 7000-feet Mount Sinai to immortalise the moment Moses receives the Word of God.

Almost 60 years later, Gladiator director Ridley Scott attempts with limited success to update the biblical story for a modern generation raised on eye-popping digital trickery.

Exodus: Gods And Kings doesn't skimp on the technological wonder including a relentless barrage of plagues.

However, the passion and fury, which coursed through the veins of DeMille's swansong, are missing.

Admittedly, the 1956 picture runs an hour longer but it's this modern retelling which sags noticeably in the middle.

Before an assault on the Hittite army, an Egyptian High Priestess (Indira Varma) predicts, "A leader will be saved and his saviour will one day lead."

In the heat of battle, Moses (Christian Bale) saves the pharaoh's son Ramses (Joel Edgerton).

Soon after, King Seti I (John Turturro) dies and Ramses ascends the throne.

Seeds of suspicion, sown by the priestess's prophesy, flourish and when Ramses learns that Moses is the child of Hebrews, the new pharaoh banishes his adopted brother to the wilderness.

Nine years later, Moses is settled in Midian with a wife Zipporah (Maria Valverde) and son Gershom (Hal Hewetson).

Following a storm, he encounters a burning bush and a messenger of God in the form of a boy (Isaac Andrews).

The child reveals that God has tasked Moses with leading 400,000 Hebrew slaves to freedom.

"What kind of Lord tells a man to leave his family?" questions Zipporah.

Moses' momentous course is set and the plagues rain down on cruel Ramses.

Exodus: Gods And Kings falls short of DeMille's epic rendering.

The bombast and swagger are there, heightened by composer Alberto Iglesias's score, but it's on a more basic emotional level that the script short-changes us and the characters.

Bale and Edgerton, sporting scowls and mascara, barely scratch the surface of their feuding kin but Ben Mendelsohn has fun with his boo-hiss Egyptian viceroy, destined for a grisly demise.

The geography of the climactic chase through the receding waters of the Red Sea is confusing.

"A leader can falter, stone will endure," observes one character about the Ten Commandments.

Films can falter and it's unlikely that Scott's flawed vision will endure.