Christians are often a hard lot to please when it comes to movies. We whine and moan when Hollywood ignores some of the great, epic stories from the Bible. Then, when Hollywood actually makes a Biblical story into a movie we whine and moan that they did not do every single detail exactly "right." We're harder to please than Tolkien fans.
For me, I don't mind much if a Biblical film adds stuff in, or takes a rather different interpretive twist than I might otherwise expect. After all, most of the stories in the actual Bible only cover a few chapters, perhaps a few dozen verses at most of exposition. For any film to be made from these stories requires speculation and added dramatic themes. Noah certainly adds themes and plot elements to the Scriptural story.
There is a ton to love in this movie. It gets so many of the details right, such as the size and look of the ark. Without showing anything terribly violent or lewd the depravity of man is nonetheless masterfully depicted. God, though only called the Creator, is clearly present throughout the film, causing miracles and giving guidance and direction where needed. A prominent theme of the film is in fact that God will provide what his people need; we only need to trust him.
The theological theme I most appreciated was the unmistakable clear message that sin has terrible root in all of us, and that sin pervades and destroys all things. Literally, all is destroyed by sin in this film, even the whole earth seems ravaged and ruined by the destruction of man. And make no mistake, the movie points out very clearly that everything is ruined by sin, not just bad environmental policies. Noah despairs of a true answer to evil, wrestling with the depravity of man. Now, this theme also leads to the worst dramatic element and even the most non-biblical theme (that of Noah trying to ensure that people die out entirely). However, the clear root message is true: we are all sinful, and a "restart" after the flood will no doubt lead to problems again. See, the Biblical message takes us to Christ -not even starting again with the world's best person will make everything right. We need a better plan, a greater redemption. We need a Savior.
Noah the movie takes this true theme and makes it the central dramatic foil, causing Noah himself to become fixated on the notion that creation is good and people are bad, thus people (all people, even himself and his family) need to die. The answer -according to the movie -is love. Noah's love for his grandchildren and family, the "innocence" of infants, and the natural love that children have -this seems to be enough to redeem according to the film. This is of course insufficient and inadequate, a disservice to the Biblical story.
Other story problems abound. Noah is quite the warrior here, something that seems rather unnecessary for a prophet of God and incompatible with his description in Scripture as someone who "walked with God." I just don't see why it was so necessary to defend the ark with weapons, other than to provide that big cataclysmic battle scene.
Another problem was the stowaway, the bad guy who sneaks onto the ark. This was (in my opinion) utterly unnecessary and superfluous. Anything achieved by this could have been done in other ways.
I didn't much care for the rock giant/fallen angel things. Their inclusion is done in such a way as not to be anti-biblical, but they don't add much either. Ultimately, they seem mostly done simply to have a Lord of the Rings kind of feel to the whole film.
I didn't care much for the way the story unfolded with the building of the ark. Scripture seems to imply that the construction of the vessel took about 100 years (contrast Genesis 5:32 with Genesis 7:6). In the movie it took 10 years. Plus, we didn't get to see much of the construction, not even a time-lapse. It was just "Let's build an ark!" and then BOOM, next scene it was 10 years later and there's an ark.
Finally, I take some exception to how many people were on the ark. Once the flood started I was beside myself in the theater, wondering how they could possibly justify having only 6 people saved from the flood on the ark. The Bible is about as clear as it could be: Noah and his wife, and his sons and their wives were all saved. That's 8 people, not 6. Now, to be fair, the issue is actually resolved, and does so in a way that does add up to 8 people and even furthers the theme of "everything God's people needs he supplies." However, it seemed too clever and contrived, and certainly is not what would be understood from a simple reading of the Bible.
I guess that sums up my feeling as a whole. There is not much at all that I can point to and say "That contradicts Scripture!" As a whole, the story is all there and the themes are largely fine. But in no way could I say that this is the film that I would have made in respect to the original story. Noah feels more like a story that is tweaked to fit, carefully constructed so as not to be loudly condemned, rather than a faithful telling of the Scripture. They seemed to aim for controversy, but in such a way as to have a way to justify themselves when called on it.
Artistically and Technically I don't have much to say. Honestly, without my prior knowledge of the story and understandable built in enthusiasm I'm not sure I'd have gotten all that excited about Noah. Simply from a technical standpoint I'm just not all that convinced the movie is all that good. Sure, the production value is very high. Yes, the special effects are good, and everything feels expensive enough.
But not much really wowed me. The acting was simply passable. Russel Crow did a fine job, but he was really unable to make me connect with his character. Otherwise, there was not much that was worthy of much note. In fact, most of the characters lacked the development that they needed to be interesting. Shem, in particular, was entirely one-note and lacking depth. Of all the actors, only Anthony Hopkins really had an on-screen spark, and he mostly phoned in his role.
As for art, this movie was drab and colorless. Seriously, there was so much brown in this film I was begging for a bit of purple by the end. There was almost no color pallet at all; brown brown brown brown, and then a bit more brown with some dark brown. Visually, this movie was about as pleasing to the eye (at least as regards color) as brown stuff doing brown things in a dark brown room. In fact, I believe I just described one or two of the interior ark scenes. Everything looked good in terms of special effects -but the problem was I didn't want to look at anything and what I did want to see was hard to see because of all the brown. I guess all the brown made the rainbow at the end really pop out, but it was a bit much.
Two things do stand out that are worthy of a second look.
First, while on the ark Noah tells the Creation story. The story he tells is nearly word for word the Creation account in Genesis, from Creation ex nihilo through Eden, Adam and Eve, the Fall, and the murder of Able by Cain. This story is accompanied by a rapid-succession montage video that visually shows what he is describing, and it is brilliant. Here's the brilliance: that video could be seen as showing a 6 day creation. But it could also be described as showing an old-earth, theistic evolution kind of story. It does not seem to fall squarely on one side of the fence or the other, allowing the viewer to conclude what we will. That sequence deserves another look; I want to see it again.
Secondly the finale was very good. In fact, the last 2 minutes of the film might be the only truly "great" moments that it contains. I won't spoil anything, but the way the themes come together and God shows his blessing is truly memorable.
Ultimately, I was hoping for a better movie. I feel there was a lot of greatness hiding behind a lot of rubbish. There was a true story being shown behind battle scenes, threatened infanticide, and rock people. But overall, Noah just isn't the film I was hoping for. I wanted the prophet of Scripture who heard God's voice, walked with God, and knew of God's blessing; I got instead a guy who never directly heard the voice of God, wasn't sure he knew what God wanted, and was unsure of God's blessing. But at least he killed people as efficiently as Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, right?
Entertainment: 6/10
Artistic Value: 6/10
Technical Merit: 5/10
Overall: 4/10 (yes, the sum of the parts actually does seem to be less than the individual parts themselves!)
P.S. On the plus side again, I do want to emphasize the great opportunity this movie presents in discussing the themes and questions it develops! There is so much that can be discussed over coffee with others who have seen it!
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