A Movie Review: NOAH

So, I wanted to try something different and announce  a series of articles reviewing a recent movie I was able to catch in the cinema. Without giving any spoilers away, I'll go over my initial thoughts, my recommendation, and anything else that can be thought of as brain fodder. As I have already posted on this blog, I am a big movie fanatic and that i have a consistent desire to relate every aspect of life to some movie, somewhere. But I think any movie goer can relate to me when I say that its all about getting lost in the story and hoping to walk away thinking differently because of it. 

With that being stated, it would only be appropriate to discuss the film that really brings into focus  the central meaning of what is our reality. Noah puts into scope of what it Is to be human and how they are tasked to exist on this earth. I remember some of the early promo for this film and my thoughts were that it was a bit darker than a traditional Bible-based film would have taken it. Even with the recent release of the Bible miniseries on History channel, that version was a bit more on the optimistic side (as optimistic as the whole world drowning in a flood can be) and reinforced the entire theme of hope through out the duration Of the series.

Now of course, as soon as I heard that Darren Aronofsky was directing this bad boy, I knew well that he wasn't going to retell this epic tale straight forward. Leave it to him to take a different edge to the famed Noah story. Darren never deals with characters in the black or white of moralistic integrity. He is an expert at really engaging characters in questionable lights and forces the audience to make judgment calls on our central character and Noah (Russell Crowe) is no different. He is constantly trapped within the gray as far has having to make a choice between life and death. 

Without giving too much away, the ending could perhaps stir some controversy but could definitely spark some interesting discussions. I didn't really read into too much of the back story behind the production of this movie, so I am not quite certain how close to the source the finer details are (I know, growing up in a catholic school and I can't seem to recall some of the major components to the story) but I wouldn't put it past Mr. Aronofsky to make some key changes. 

But of course, controversy or not, it is a great film with awesome visuals. Some aspects of the film may have ruffled some feathers, but in no way near the level of say The Passion of The Christ Or The Last Temptation of Christ (I think there is something about Jesus that ruffles people's feathers,) The acting is great and solid, of course having the reunion of Beautiful Mind's Academy award winning duo, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly.