Noah (Russell Crowe) is chosen by his world's creator to undertake a momentous mission to rescue the innocent and his own family (Including Jennifer Connelly, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth, Emma Watson, Leo McHugh Carroll) before an apocalyptic flood cleanses the wicked, led by Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone) from the world. Also featuring Anthony Hopkins as Noah's grandfather Methuselah.
Alright before I get to talking about the controversies surrounding this movie let's look at what I liked and disliked in the movie. The movie is GREAT to look at with breathtaking cinematography and for the most part stunning visual effects (though I'll go more into that later). The acting is pretty good, with Ray Winstone's villainous Tubal-Cain being the main highlight and Anthony Hopkins stealing his scenes as Methuselah. And just like in 'Perks of Being A Wallflower', Emma Watson proves that she does have real acting chops outside of the 'Harry Potter' franchise. I also liked the movie's portrayal of how wicked men (apart from Noah's family) had become since Cain killed Abel. It is among the many things from the story of Noah that have been fleshed out for the movie, and it's a nightmarish sight as men are fighting each other, killing animals for pleasure and for food, giving away their women for food, and simply leaving others to die alone. The scenes are brief, but are very well done.
Now for what I didn't like. Initially, the movie is very slowly paced and it's quite irritating as I simply just wanted the movie to move along. While it does get kudos for portraying Noah as someone who was human and struggled at times to interpret what The Creator told him, some of Noah's actions just seem to go completely against character. Thankfully a scene towards the end of the movie between Noah and Ila (Emma Watson's character) helps get things back on track at least. While some of the visual effects are stunning, others were rather poor (some of the animals as they're going onto the ark) and some were just plain awkwardly placed. And speaking of awkwardly placed special effects, let's go right into the rock monsters. Yes, there are rock monsters in this movie. The Watchers, as they are known in the movie, are angels who took pity on mankind and decided to help advance mankind with technology. But since this disobeyed the Creator, they were banished to Earth and remain as giant rock monsters. The Watchers are inspired by the Nephilim from Genesis and also taken from the Book of Enoch and the Dead Sea Scrolls. While I don't have a problem with the Watchers in the movie as a concept, the fact that they're rock monsters rubs me the wrong way. Honestly, they just look silly and seem a bit misplaced. And on the nitpicky side of things I didn't really like the style of the opening texts and the title sequence, but those are minor complaints.
Now this movie has stirred up quite a bit of controversy. It has been bashed for allegedly being a God-hating, Bible-bashing, over all anti-Christian movie that completely changes the story of Noah. Heck, on the official 'Noah' website Paramount lists the following disclaimer:
"The film is inspired by the story of Noah. While artistic license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide. The biblical story of Noah can be found in the book of Genesis".
Of course there are also those on the other side of the argument who merely have bashed this movie simply for being a religious movie. And let's face it: how can a movie be bashed for being anti-religion and also be bashed because it deals with religion? Sounds a bit hypocritical to me. So after having seen the movie, what is my opinion on all of the controversy surrounding the movie?
Yes, this is an interpretation of the story of Noah, not a literal translation. The actual story of Noah in Genesis is only three chapters long. It definitely has it's fair share of artistic license and embellishment to flesh out the story into a two hour movie. Heck, almost every movie that took it's inspiration from the Bible takes some form of artistic license with the source material. But I don't believe that 'Noah' is anti-Christian or anti-God in any way, shape, or form. God is mentioned several times in the movie, although He is always referred to as "Creator" or "The Creator". So to say that the movie never mentions God (which commentator Glenn Beck claimed on his show) or is anti-God (which I've seen a few articles and clips of TV shows on the internet claim) is completely ridiculous. Did they not watch the same movie I watched?
Some people I'm friends with on Facebook have posted articles that bash the movie, and others commented how they wouldn't be seeing the movie based on the article or everything they've heard about the movie. Let's be serious here: how can you judge a movie and sway others from seeing it if you haven't seen the movie yourself and you are solely relying on the opinions of political pundits and commentators? In that case are you really stating your opinion of the movie or are you simply regurgitating someone else's thoughts on it? I saw this movie. I can fairly state my opinion on it.
Whoops, didn't mean to go into a rant like that. Anyway, since movies are subjective they can be open to various viewpoints and interpretations. The way I have interpreted the movie is completely different than what someone else thought of it. That happens all the time with controversial movies, which I'll talk about more in a future post.
As far as director Darren Aronofsky's other movies goes, I've seen 'Black Swan' and I've attempted to watch 'Pi'. 'Black Swan' I talked about in my Best Picture showcase for 2010, and it's a very good, well acted psychological thriller. I don't remember much about 'Pi' except that it was in black and white and it involved some guy spiraling into madness and dealing with numbers. It just wasn't that interesting. 'Noah' falls into the middle. I didn't like it as much as 'Black Swan' but it is at least interesting, which is more than I can say about 'Pi'.
'Noah' is a well-made, visually interesting but a sometimes slowly paced interpretation of the biblical story of Noah that has some pretty good performances. If you go in expecting a literal adaptation of the story, you'll be disappointed. If you go in with an open mind and view it as entertainment, you'll probably like it or you might fall in line with how I thought of it, thinking that it was all right. It's a different kind of Bible movie, that's for sure.
TRAILERS
- 'Hercules' - The Rock plays Hercules. This doesn't look all that good but who knows maybe it could be a lot of cheesy fun.
- 'Transcendence' - looks like it could be pretty good.
- 'The Amazing Spider-man 2' - I can't wait until May 2, when I can finally go see this movie and stop seeing this trailer.
- 'Earth to Echo' - the same trailer I got in front of 'Muppets Most Wanted'. Still looks like a below average found footage version of 'E.T.'.
There's a good, solid hour here of pure tension, excitement and emotion, but after that goes, it starts to get a bit too strange with what it's trying to say and where it ends up going. Nice review Jake.
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