Noah Movie Review

Bitchin'

There have been many movies over the years which deal with biblical figures and event, The Passion of The Christ, The Prince Of Egypt, Life Of Brian, my personal favourite is The Prince Of Egypt, deep, meaningful and stunning animation. That brings me to Noah, Darren Aronofsky's take on the biblical tale with Russell Crowe as the titular figure, along with Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Ray Winston and Anthony Hopkins. Noah tells the story of Noah the descendant of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve and the journey he must take from simple father to biblical saviour. Along the way he'll converse with fallen angels, do battle with the descendant of Cain and his armies and deal with a teenager who is really hung up on sex.

Noah is an unusual take on the biblical tale as it deals with some unanswered questions some people might have. One such question is, how the hell did Noah build that ark for every conceivable creature on Earth? Well in this iteration he is helped by the "Watchers", a group of fallen angels on Earth who volunteer to help Noah build the ark after they realise that the "Creator" has chosen him to save the innocent, aka the animals. Which is an interesting storyline, the animals are the ones to be saved not humanity. Noah points it out several times that man has to be obliterated, humanity has to be destroyed so that Earth can go on with its innocence intact. It's a dark theme and the movie follows that theme well. With its brutal characters and at times disturbing imagery, one particular moment is when Noah goes into the enemy camp looking for wives for his two sons and he see's himself as a disgusting, evil scavenger feasting on a living feral dog, Noah will stick with you for a while after the credits roll. 

I am the storm.

The visuals also reflect the dark theme, there is nothing bright and colourful in this world, except when they show what the Garden of Eden looked like.The muted colours are clearly there to give an apocalyptic feel to the movie and it works well. The characters also add to this atmospheric world, for example Russell Crowe is superb as Noah. He is a believable father who tries to nurture his family the best way he knows how, all the while having to deal with the fact that he has to judge all of humanity. Emma Watson is great as Illa a young woman in love with Noah's eldest, Shem. She gives a wonderful performance throughout the entire movie and I thoroughly enjoyed her in Noah. The rest of the cast are okay,unfortunately they can be pretty forgettable.Some of them are simply spouting important information you need to know but apart from Ray Winston's Tubail-Cain the rest of the characters are as interesting as the animals Noah is saving.

The biggest problem I had with the movie in the end was the message and who it was directed towards. They show you how the "Creator" created everything and it is the oddest mish mash of beliefs I have ever seen and I still don't know how I feel about it. There is then the whole pc issue, this movie was made to please everyone, between the combined creation theory to the fact that God is never called God I just kind of felt like, make a statement. Pick a side. It irked me and I just couldn't get past it.

Visually stunning, biblically brutal reshaping of the story of Noah. A muddled execution at times doesn't stop Noah from giving you an epic story full of wonder, tragedy and boulder angels.
Rating; 3/5