Noah

[raj101]

'A beautiful mess', YES.

The most impressive thing about this movie is that someone was brave enough to attempt making it, in a very irreligious period in history today, and in IMAX to boot. A Bible story! And its fairly hardcore Bible too. I was expecting a fresh spin on the story, such as placing it in the future rather than the past a la David Gemmell's post apocalyptic Jon Shannow stories. But no its just plain Bible, in thick roast IMAX slices. Its so straight, its almost fresh - after all almost one has made a literal Bible movie on a huge budget in decades. Certainly not an IMAX one.

Not that Bible stories dont deserve big budget backing, they are in fact the best examples of what IMAX should be about (theres nothings bigger than the freaking Deluge or indeed this God guy, if hes real). But for NOAH, its a mixed bag of results on screen.

Some of the IMAX scenes work wonders, particularly the stunning creation intermission and the swansong scene with the awesome rainbow rings in the sky. At other times, even IMAX doesn't work - the Ark looks way to small to be remotely credible for the task it performs. Few scenes felt like they were depicting an actual global flood. Sometimes the CGI felt weak, although I appreciate the very deliberate stopmotion-like effects in some scenes. The story is sometimes let down by unintentional comedic 'Bible literalness' - the scene where Em Watson sobs about having children you cant help but laugh at when Russ turns from her to hear all the animals snoring in abject boredom from her woodeness.

The acting has similar ranges, Russ makes a decent Noah, Liam Neeson takes another monster role in his stride...but for every Neeson there is a simpering Emma Watson or silly 'cockney gangster' letting the side down (although they both kinda suited the minimal dialogue and harsh, earthen despair of the movie).

What you are left with when you are leaving the cinema are the striped brutish reality of past life and what was supposed to have happened during the Flood, and some mindblowing imagery that will linger on your retina for decades to come. Theres not much more you can really expect from a rather literal Bibble film. You'd expect the word of God to leave a big impression, this it does.


Review affected maybe by ingesting 6 free Ben and Jerrys beforehand (of which Strawberry shortcake remains the best)

[prettyxcool]

My somewhat belated review. I was at the Times+ screening, and they actually had a list, checking the names on the tickets against their list, which is a first for Vue Apollo Piccadilly.

After the intro, asking us to stay behind for the Q&A, I was expecting a very epic bible story, but instead was treated to a fantasy story, but I really enjoyed it, I like this type of film. As mentioned in the Q&A, there are only about six verses in the bible regarding Noah and the Flood, but this was the Aronofsky's vision, and he fleshed it out with other biblical references and made a very interesting interpretation, of a man tormented and really quite fanatic to follow what he thinks the Creator (he avoided the word God) wants him to do. Like most films based on books or real events, they are sometimes based very loosely or are very different, but this is fine with me.

Enjoyed the the Q+A afterwards as well, and the surprise guest, Patti Smith, who wrote the lullaby.

7/10

[stone_monkey]

I just watched this yesterday. After watching the trailer, the film was a let down. I thought it was going to be a epic like films made in the pas ie Ben Hur, Cleopatra or Samson and Delilah. It was nothing campared with these old films. It was major let down.

[moviejohnson]

the trailers certainly look spectacular