Monthly review: Noah

This month’s movie review is over Noah, directed by Darren Aronofsky. Noah is based off of the biblical story found in Genesis. It explains that God wanted to start over. He sent the flood to get rid of every living creature on the earth because they were not behaving well. God chose Noah to build an ark as a shelter for when the flood came. Also, he commanded Noah to take in two of every animal, male and female so they could repopulate when the storm was over.

The visual effects were not the greatest in this movie. I was expecting to see real animals being brought onto the ark. Instead all of the animals were computer generated and I thought that they could have looked more realistic than they did. Throughout the movie, there were scenes that used stop-motion to demonstrate a timeline of what happened before Noah’s time. These scenes would have been more interesting if the images wouldn’t have been flashing on the screen at a high speed. I think that it was harder to see the images as they passed, and it gave me a headache in the process.

Even though Noah kept the main idea of an apocalyptic flood, it doesn’t follow along with the Bible very well, and that was disappointing to me. It didn’t live up to my childhood expectations that Noah was a good guy. Towards the beginning of the movie, Noah was forced to kill a person in front of his young boys in order to get food for his family. This example and many other violent acts made the movie less enjoyable for me.

Since the movie is a drama intended for a secular audience, it makes sense to have a lot of violence included. If you are not the type of person that enjoys these movies, I wouldn’t advise spending your money on this one. However, there is a hint of romance thrown in to help ease the suspense.

Main character, Russell Crowe, acts as a hardworking father that is willing to do whatever it takes. Whether or not this portrayal of Noah is realistic, Crowe is an adept actor who does an exceptional job. With supporting actress Jennifer Connelly, Noah and his wife struggle through a life-ending storm with their children. From a secular perspective it was a great drama, but if it is solely based off of the Bible, this movie strayed off the path. Overall, with violence, gore, and Noah portrayed as a villain, this movie did not live up to my expectations of following the bible. I give this movie a two out of five stars.

~Brianna Liras