Noah

So... yeah, the guy who directed Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream decided he's going to take his crack at the Old Testament story of Noah.

I remember when I saw the trailers for this movie and I thought to myself, like I think a lot of people did, how can you make a feature length film on the story of Noah. The guy builds an Ark, it rains, the world floods, they float around for a little bit, they start civilization again, how is that a full length movie? It also is only about 3 chapters in the book of Genesis so again, how do you make a 2 hour movie based on that?

Surprisingly enough, they do do that, whether its good or not... well...

It is set up very quickly that Noah (played by Russell Crowe) and his family, his wife (played by Jennifer Connelly) his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth (later played by Douglas Booth, Logan Lerman and Leo McHugh) and his adopted daughter Ila (played later by Emma Watson) live in a very different world than the one we know. Its actually really interesting in how its set up. When you hear the bible story, I think a lot of people imagine Noah living in what we always imagine Old Testament times were, but instead this story is imagined in almost a prehistoric world. Noah and his family are basically nomads and the earth is almost barren. This is probably pointing towards a Pangea like earth where trees and such have not developed, or it has a slight environmental overtone by saying that humanity has overworked the earth making it barren.

Anyway, Noah is given a vision by God (or the Creator) and is given the warning that humanity has grown too evil and sinful and needs to be purged from the Earth. He tasks Noah to build an ark, bring in all the animals of the earth so they may be spared the purge, and wait for the destruction of humanity.

That is, in essence the overarching plot.

However, there is A LOT more that happens in this movie.

The first thing that I will mention that is actually really interesting in this movie is the physical threat that Noah and his family face.

Ray Winstone plays the leader of the people deemed sinful and too evil to be saved. He believes himself to be the king of the people and he has a take on humanity and their role on Earth that surprisingly isn't that different from people today. He believes that creation is the dominion of man and man can do whatever he wants with it to fulfill his own needs.

I may repeat myself multiple times in this review but the fact of the matter is, there is a decent overtone of the environmental movement in this movie and its actually done with a lot of care and tact. Its not like Fern Gully or Avatar saying that man is the destruction of nature, its actually opening a dialogue of humanity's role on earth and how we should foster it.

While Ray Winstone's character is really kind of the worst kind of person along with the rest of the evil people on the earth, you do have to step back and listen to his point of view, because it is interesting and does create for a two sided argument in this film.

But anyways, Winstone represents the physical conflict that threatens Noah, his family, and his mission.

The second threat to Noah is that of a personal struggle he has as he goes along this journey.

Some people like Russell Crowe, some people don't, I actually kind of like him. He does have a little bit of a one note performance at times and he does do this thing where his voice doesn't really go higher than one note, BUT I do enjoy the performance out of him.

The cool thing about this character is the struggle he has with interpreting the message he receives from the Creator. Throughout the movie, there is the question of whether or not Noah and his family are exempt from the impending punishment that is coming to humanity.

Noah knows that the animals he is harboring on the ark are innocent, but he is conflicted on whether or not he and his family are good enough to reach the new world. And regardless of his thoughts, I really liked how they weren't totally united with the rest of his family on whether or not they were.

The struggle of Noah actually does bring into question the resolve of environmental thoughts and how they can be taken to the extreme if care is not taken.

Because on the other end of things, you have his family. You have these people who see Noah as the father figure, the wise figure, but at the same end, they don't see the visions, they're just as human, and they want human things. So what happens with a man says he is driven by heavenly purpose and how long can his family follow that heavenly purpose. I won't give too much away, but there is a great evolution of a lot of the characters, but Noah especially.

I think something that I maybe would have liked to see out of this story is maybe a questioning on whether or not Noah was actually getting these visions or perhaps he was just crazy. I don't know, I don't know if that would have taken away from the story, I don't know if it would have enraged a lot of people, but I think it would have been interesting to take this over zealous Noah to the next level. I like it as it is, I more thought that's where they were going, and perhaps would have wanted to see that, however, the way it is, I actually really like.

Some of the other standouts is Emma Watson. She plays Noah's adopted daughter and wife of his eldest son Shem. She's got her issues she's got to deal with and she does it in a way that makes it very obvious why she was the one who came out of Harry Potter with the most talent and the most promise in her career.

Seriously, I really look forward to Emma Watson in the future, she has a lot of exciting projects coming up (including playing Belle in Beauty and the Beast). I was already excited about her but this movie actually makes me even more excited about her career.

Douglas Booth as Shem was really kind of a worthless character, but the focus wasn't really on him. I suppose that's more of a critique on writing and the only reason I bring it up is because I feel like there was a lot of stuff that affected him and we didn't really get to see a lot of acting or reaction to what was happening. It mainly focused on Emma Watson, which is good, but at the same time a little bit confusing.

Jennifer Connelly gives a good performance which I guess is to be expected with someone of her resume.

Someone I wasn't expecting to be in this film but was pleasantly surprised when I realized he was was Logan Lerman as Noah's second son Hamm.

The unfortunate thing about this character is that a lot of what he does is governed by source material. If you've read the book of genesis, you know what happens to the majority of these characters and you kind of know what happens in the end.

That being said, the film elements of the characters usually make for fleshing out of those characters and really make them interesting. However, I feel like the character of Hamm was really limited, based on what actually happens to him in the story.

Because of that, a lot of what Lerman does is just kind of stare and stand around. And unfortunately, being a second son, this guy gets shit on, A LOT. And again, I feel like this disposition of being the second child and not having everything he wants could have led to a really interesting character. Unfortunately, again, by disposition of being a character in a set up story being adapted, Hamm kind of has to end up in a certain way. And because of that, it kind of lessens the character and makes me feel like there could have been more with him. That being said, that's a lot of critique with writing and not so much Lerman's performance. While I won't say it was the best in the movie, I will say that I am interested in seeing more from Lerman.

Really, I only know him from Perks of Being a Wallflower. And while he did a good job in that movie, I want to see him do more than just be the dorky kid from that movie and actually be a good actor. I don't know, a lot of people like this guy and I'm kind of lukewarm on him. I want to see more.

The last thing I want to mention about this movie is the environment it is set in. Like I said before, its a world that is not really like our own. Its also set in a world at the beginning of creation. Whether you're Christian, Jewish, or religious at all, the movie does exist in a world where there is something somewhat supernatural going on. And again this is a movie that is based off a limited number of chapters in the book of Genesis, the director had to take some liberties with the environment to make it interesting.

That being said, the movie does have an atmosphere to it that makes it a little bit different than your standard movie. If you've watched anything from Aronofsky, you'll know that he does have a distinct style and he doesn't exactly tell stories in the traditional ways. Noah is a lot more traditional of story telling than say Requiem for a Dream, but at the same time, it does have these interesting cut aways that focus a lot more on the visuals than the story.

While this is a creative way of doing film, it does make the movie feel a little bit long and a little bit top heavy. When the movie hits a point where you think its going to be a climax, I clicked on the running time and I realized that I had another hour left of the film. While I won't say the long run time is a total downfall of the movie, I will say it does drag at certain points.

The last thing worth talking about when it comes to the environment of the film is the mythology of it.

There were two things about the trailer to this movie that made me question it. the first one was the idea of making a 2 hour long movie about a few chapters in Genesis, and the other one was the mythological elements of the film.

And this might be something that might make a certain community not really like the movie, it kind of depends, but there is a sort of fantasy element to this movie.

There are rock monsters in this movie. I'll let you watch the movie to figure out what they actually are, but there is a sort of fantasy element to it that some people might find offensive to the story. I don't know, I haven't read enough on the critical response of the film to really tell if people were bothered by the fantasy twist on this story, but I personally liked it.

The movie had a really interesting twist of staying true to the source material, having a little bit of a religious twinge to the entire thing, but at the same time making a message on the environment, the nature of man, and having a little bit of fantasy in there to carry the plot and really make the movie an epic rather than just a simple bible story.

I think it would have been fun to see this movie in theaters or even in IMAX. But as it is, the movie is actually really entertaining. Overall, its a retelling that's going to appeal to a wider audience and I think it does its job really well. The music is good, the acting is good, the visual effects are really good. I would say the pacing is a little bit off, and some of the characters were perhaps a little bit too tied to the source material. However, I really enjoyed Noah. I don't know if its a movie that I will want to watch again purposefully, but if its on TV or something like that, I definitely will stop and enjoy the visuals and the pretty good performances.

But what did you think of Noah? Did you like it? Is it sacrilegious? If so why? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts by following me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and you can also send me requests for future reviews. There you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. Here's the trailer from Noah, but perhaps seen in a little bit of a different light. Enjoy!