Noah
A man who suffers visions of an apocalyptic deluge takes measures to protect his family from the coming flood.
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- Cast:
- Russell Crowe , Jennifer Connelly , Ray Winstone , Anthony Hopkins , Emma Watson , Logan Lerman , Douglas Booth
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Reviews
Undescribable Perfection
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
Okay. Here is my problem with this movie and every other movie about "Noah".With the birth of the twin girls, how are they going to carrying on the future of human beings, when the supposedly the only people left on Earth are their family. Right.What are they suppose to do, sleep with one of their Uncles to continue the human race.This is a problem for me. Sleeping with your Uncles is okay. But they put a damper on homosexuality. Come on...Anyone, please explain to me.Thank you.
I don't know if it's important to say that I'm not Catholic or any other way religious, but I'm familiar with Pible and Christian mythology quite well. But that is not the reason I watched the film - it was because the film was directed by Darren Aronofsky and very well casted. Aronofsky is kind of director that even if his films are shallow they are at least visually striking (The Fountain). I can't say 'Noah' was particularly deep nor shallow as it dealt with classical themes on humans inner fights, hypocrisy and what is wrong what is right. Also I can't say it was visually striking as much - all the epicness were CGI (not that would be bad itself) and it seemed cheap and rushed at places. The epic battle scene in the middle of the film felt wrongly paced and ended as abruptly as it started, and it took 'Noah' little out of balance as after that the film started to fell like it's dragging it's feet.Russell Crowe in his brutal manliness proved again he is meant to carry these sort of epic history/fantasy films.
I also do not 'get' what all the hysteria is from the religious community regarding this film. Taken by itself, the movie is actually really really good!!! But first, a plot overview for those taken aback by the biblical inconsistencies: * The Nephilim, represented by walking Treants (living trees with branches -as-arms, human faces, etc), when fighting to protect the arc, upon death get sent to Heaven, and this rallies the rest to fight even harder; in the Bible, the Nephilim are beyond redemption permanently and cannot gain salvation. * God is not concerned with, in the opening scene, Noah's one son breaks the stem of a wildflower, and Noah corrects him saying not to destroy the nature that God created; in the Bible, God would not have cared if anyone had done this!! * Tubal-cain, played brilliantly by Ray Winstone, is the bad guy, trying to sneak onto the Arc (and eventually gets there, by befriending Ham, the 'bad' son of Noah, who gets fooled by Tubal-Cain). This character would mostly be historically accurate, if not for the fact that his only 'sin' portrayed is being overly-zealous and rallying an army with steel weapons to produce siege weaponry. Again, God could care less if trees were cut down to make any sort of technology to be used - God said to A. & E. in the garden, "This garden is yours to do with as you see fit. The birds of the air, the ground, all is yours to live off of as you see fit (paraphrasing). * Noah was never tested by God to sacrifice one of his new-born sons!! Abraham, however, was, in similar fashion; but in the movie, God really meant for Noah to kill his newborn - in the Bible, the command to Abraham was only a test of loyalty and the child was stopped from being sacrificed!! The beginning of the film starts off with, as I said, one son (I forget which) breaking off a wildflower stem. Then Noah and his family move along, over a very nicely done backdrop of a destroyed wasteland with few resources. They encounter some trouble from strangers and fight. Character of Shem is introduced who has a fiance, Emma 'The Amazing' Watson, and shows a few scenes involving those two. There is a grandfather, Methuselah, who uses his God-granted power of Healing Touch (this is an accurate portrayal of a power true Christians have), causes her to overcome her infertility and directs her to seduce Shem at this time to conceive. I am particularly struck by, how for a movie so Biblically inaccurate, there are some moments that get the culture of the day right, and the previously mentioned scene is particularly tear-jerking and powerful!!! Next, these Nephilim agree to help Noah build the arc (inaccurate), and fight off Tubal-Cain's armies of, I call them the 'unwashed masses' of angry men (inaccurate). Around this time, there is a scramble to get Shem and his fiance, late to arrive, onto the arc. Next, a number of Nephilim begin to die. At around this time, Tubal-Cain manages to enter the arc through a hidden spot around the back, and narrowly avoids the flood. Anyways, the film ends with Noah disobeying God by not having the gall to kill his own son. (inaccurate - God was against child sacrifice). My only critique of this film is that the character of Tubal-cain is introduced as kind of a one-dimensional character, a typical - we would call today- kind of a thuggish street tough. His leadership abilities are shown, as he rallies his men with am empassioned speech, but really not much jealously from him or personal struggles shown. It never shows anything Tubal-Cain actually did wrong; I was expecting them to show some massively wicked guy. Noah and his family are however greatly complex. I don't know if this is a flaw or if it was intentional - just something I noted. Jennifer Connelly plays Noah's wife, and a great deal of Noah's consciousness are focused on her as she goes over the struggles they are facing with the family aboard the arc. Perhaps a 9 is in order. Perhaps not. Still one of the more memorable films I've seen. On a side note: I am also a fan of Aronofsky's The Wrestler. I have yet to review it, but it was funny to see Todd Barry playing the wrestler's boss as he works at a supermarket, a side job to his wrestling career. He constantly jabs him in a way only Todd Barry could pull off, it is hilarious!!
I've noticed that Darren Aronofsky, the director of this clunker, has only one other film to his credit so far, another flop called Mother. Does this mean that the money men will send him the way of Michael Cimino who quietly disappeared after Heaven's Gate? Surprising as he made two pictures I loved, The Wrestler and Black Swan. What went wrong? Well I'd advise no one over the age of thirteen waste precious movie time on this dud. I was brought up on the bible stories, not that I'm religious, but this pic really has little to do with the traditional story other than the main character is called Noah and he's building an ark, which actually looks like a long oblong box. I understand from what I've read that the Transformer like rock creatures here were meant to be some kind of angels but in all honesty by the time they arrived I couldn't care less about the rest of the film and didn't really have a clue as to what was going on. Anthony Hopkins turned up as he invariably does these days, and it reminded me of all those has been British MP's who turn up at the House of Lords each day to collect their £300. I rest my case. One star out of ten as I can't go any lower. Is Russell Crowe getting hard up for a buck? Oh! and Emma Watson is just a wooden here as she was in the Harry Potter pics. Poor young lady has a long way to go to create any screen prescence I'm afraid.