I'm going on the record saying that I liked Noah. I tried to avoid spoilers below by being vague, but if you plan to see it and you’re anything like me (I refuse to read any reviews before seeing a movie I'm interested in), you might want to skip to the bottom.
Stuff I liked:
- The creation scene. WHOA. Worth the cost of admission alone.
- Noah’s underwater vision.
- The scene where the Watchers fell to earth and crawled out of the mire.
- The scene after the flood hits when they’re all just sitting there in the dark listening to the whole world die. So awful. So awesome.
- The scene between Noah and Ila where he tells her she has worth even though she’s barren. I maybe got a little choked up.
- That it draws from multiple literary sources (e.g. the Dead Sea Scrolls) in addition to the KJV. Related: That it gave me the opportunity to Google “Nephilim.”
- LOTR meets the Bible. Come on.
Stuff I didn’t like:
- The CGI pangolin-dog at the beginning. Took me a while to forgive that.
- That subplot in the second half (though the more I think about it, the more I realize why Aronofsky put it in there – Noah trying to figure out God’s purpose for the flood and what role he (Noah) was supposed to play in fulfilling his flawed perception of that purpose. The movie took it too far, though, and gave it way too much screen time.)
- The stowaway.
- The immediate consequence of Methuselah’s blessing. I nearly laughed out loud.
I do agree that it deviated majorly from the Biblical account because at no point is it EVER mentioned in the Bible that Noah wore a henley.
In conclusion, visually stunning (and not just because of Emma Watson) and thought provoking. B+
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(Unrelated: here's my most recent post for BCC!)
