Big, bad, and hateful. These are not three words I would want associated with any production in which I was a part. “ The Noah Movie” is a *very* (cough cough) liberal and personal interpretation/recreating of a priceless biblical narrative. The storyline of the movie deviates from the bible in so many ways that most of the movie you sit there and wonder “is the only thing these two stories have in common the name?” So here are my thoughts. This won’t be exhaustive but this is what I walked away with. I always try to walk away with finding positives but with this movie it was difficult. Below is my best attempt and they are pretty far fetched.
The Positive:
It did make me think about two things:
1) Man’s condition.
One of the major things that struck me through this film was the overwhelming coldness, harshness, and evil of humanity and the severity of resulting judgement. Consider it, the whole world was destroyed save what was in Noah’s ark. Everything. Every animal, every plant, and every human gone, washed away in the judgement water. It was a reminder of how serious God really takes sin and rebellion. When we disobey God it is no light or small matter.
2) The continual stress on Noah.
I never really took into account how much stress the whole time would be for Noah. Here he is, the only human who is following the Creator of the universe and he is now responsible for saving not only the human race, but all living creatures. Whoa. Talk about overwhelming.
The acting.
With a cast including Russell Crowe and Emma Watson you know that the acting will be good and it was. The characters they were portraying however were just... bad. Plus I mean, it had Emma Watson in it so how bad could it be? :) Unfortunately it proved to be quite awful.
That’s it. The rest of the movie was quite depressing.
The Negative: *this list is not exhaustive. This is simply what stood out to me.
Lack of biblical truth from a biblical story.
There were only two or three times that I could actually say, oh yes that actually happened. Most of the negative is due to this “umbrella” sort of problem.
Noah.
The character of Noah was portrayed as angry, hateful, and bitter. While we don’t know anything about his personality from Scripture, we do know that Noah followed God and was chosen based on his character/relationship with God. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God”. (Genesis 6:9b) As God is not angry, hateful, or bitter is safe to say that Noah was not either. He might have gotten angry, dealt with hate or bitterness but it could not have been habitual for him to be blameless and righteous. All through the movie you see Noah disregarding his role as a leader. You see his wife eventually intervene through means of sorcery because of his lack of leadership. You see him threaten the life of his children and grandchildren. You see him telling people that they are judged and there is no hope for their redemption. Unlike the Noah of scripture who went out and preached for one-hundred years that there was mercy for the repentant and that they could all be saved. Noah saves the lives of animals and chooses them over his own family telling them that the future paradise will be free of mankind as “the Creator wills it to be”. There is not much to respect in this character and you feel that when you finish the film.
The Watchers.
These beings are fallen angels that help Noah build the ark. Their story as told is:
“We were the guardian angels of earth and man. When man fell we tried to intervene and help but when we stepped out of our roles given to us by the Creator we were punished by being thrown out of heaven. We were once light but we were entombed in these rock bodies as punishment.”
So they help man build a civilization and eventually man turns on them. Methuselah ( Noah’s grandfather) stands alone and with magic protects the last few of them from death. (There is a slight positive to these creatures as they are the only “people” in the film who show unwavering dedication and actual repentance, unfortunately though they aren’t even real from the biblical account. They were however my favorite comical addition to the movie.) After they die protecting Noah and the ark they are returned to their original state of light and are accepted back to “the Creator”. This is the only display of twisted mercy from the heavens in the movie.
Noah’s sons.
In the biblical record all of Noah’s sons were married. In the movie, only Shem has a girlfriend who then has twin baby girls, allegedly to be brides to his two brothers. Character seems to be lacking as two try to kill their own father among other displays of disrespect and disobedience,
The agenda.
The agenda, whether intended or not was mind-blowing. It goes like this, man is evil and should die and let all of wonderful nature live in peace. Animals and plants are sacred and should never be touched, ever. This is environmentalism at it’s fullest. Man is a disturbance to nature and the Creator wishes to destroy everyone and leave the animals and plants in perfect harmony. All Noah was for was to deliver the animals safely and then die. He won’t find wives for Ham and Japheth, and when Shem’s girlfriend/wife Ila gives birth to two girls, Noah almost kills them because they will lead to more humans on the earth. There is a major lack of respect for human life whereas animal life is held in a divine place.
The portrayal of God.
God is unnamed and is simply referred to as “the Creator.” He is harsh, just, unloving, unmerciful, and non-communicative. Noah learns what is coming and what to do through drug induced dreams. God is aloof and uncaring. There is no reference to His mercy or love.
Sexual content.
There is some very passionate kissing/making out between Shem and Ila. Adam and Eve are seen naked, although from a distance it is still painfully obvious they are not clothed.
Language.
There are various swear words floating around throughout the film.
Witchcraft/Sorcery.
Noah’s grandfather Methuselah is some kind of wizard who intervenes multiple times, from drugging Noah and giving him dreams, to healing Ila of barrenness, and using magic in a battle against men to protect the Watchers. There are various other occurrences throughout the movie.
From a production standpoint,
For having a 125 million dollar budget the CGI felt fake and unbelievable, and at times the set was just poorly done. Disappointed all the way around.
The bottom line
The Noah Movie is disrespectful to the character of God and Noah. It undermines the Bible and the truths there contained. I went in expecting some deviation from scripture but this was a completely different story and one I would not recommend to anyone. God’s character is under attack and compromised, man is viewed as an oppressive evil creature that needs to be exterminated. Not like the loved creature that God has us to be. Mercy is non-existent, “justice” is perverted, and demons and witchcraft are praised. With things like this stellar acting can only go so far. When you have a story, set, and characters as depressing and so far removed from the Bible there is good reason for Christians to cry out. We expect directors to respect other authors and to stick to the original story so why should the Bible be any different? If you want to make a biblical narrative, then follow the biblical narrative. They might as well just had named it “The Bob Movie” and just ditched whole Noah concept altogether but I suppose you make more money with the Noah name.
Final thought,
A probably-too-generous 2 out of 10 stars. Save yourself 2 hours and 10 bucks and just don’t go see The Noah Movie.
