Noah (2014)

Archivist · April 01, 2014, 12:18:09 AM

Anyone thinking of seeing Noah? I have to admit that the essential premise of telling the biblical story doesn't grab me. Some are saying it's a great film, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qmj5mhDwJQ

Any takers?

Zapranoth · April 01, 2014, 12:44:19 AM

The word I hear is that it is in very few ways actually resembles the biblical story. So you might be good there :-)

indianasmith · April 01, 2014, 06:27:00 AM

I'm going to watch it and give it a chance. While I understand that artists are going to take some artistic liberties with the Biblical account, I hope they don't bugger up the story too badly!

Rev. Powell · April 01, 2014, 07:13:01 AM

I hope they left in the part where Noah gets drunk, his son sees him naked, and he curses his grandson to be a slave.

Seriously, that's the strangest story in the Bible.

Trevor · April 01, 2014, 08:48:29 AM

Quote from: indianasmith on April 01, 2014, 06:27:00 AM
While I understand that artists are going to take some artistic liberties with the Biblical account, I hope they don't bugger up the story too badly!

I think John Huston already did that with The Bible.

The Burgomaster · April 02, 2014, 10:19:58 AM

I wanted to see it until I read comments from various people comparing it to the TRANSFORMERS franchise. One of the few movies on Fandango where audiences bash the movie more than the critics.

tracy · April 02, 2014, 03:31:22 PM

We'll probably wait for the DVD and rent it.

BoyScoutKevin · April 06, 2014, 01:39:38 PM

I might. I haven't made up my mind yet, but it did fairly well last week, for a Biblical film, at the box office. Top grosser for the weekend with a box office gross of $44 million. I doubt it'll be #1 again this weekend with "Captain America: Winter Soldier" opening up on Friday, April 4. I have seen the trailer for "Noah," and while that is probably really not enough to judge the entire film on, the problem I had with it, was Russell Crowe. I just thought he was miscast as Noah.

Of course, if this doesn't get one into the theater, upcoming is "Exodus," where Moses once more leads his people out of bondage in Egypt. With Christian Bale, Sigourney Weaver, and Ben Kingsley, and directed by avowed Christian Ridley Scott.

The Burgomaster · April 06, 2014, 03:53:42 PM

Well, I broke down and saw it today. I don't know a lot of the details of the Biblical story, so I can't comment on that. My wife, however, assured me that the move has very little to do with the Bible. I suspected the filmmakers used some creative license when the giant CGI "Watchers" (rock creatures) showed up to help Noah build the ark and fight his enemies.

Overall, I'd say it was an "okay" movie. One thing I must say is that, if you insist on making a movie that is 90% CGI, at least put some time, money, and effort into it. The CGI ranged from decent to downright awful. There are some scenes of people walking across vast expanses of terrain and it is very obvious that the terrain is CGI. You can see the outlines of the characters against the background, like someone cut out their images using an exacto knife and pasted them into the scene. And the scenes where hundreds of animals emerge from the forest and walk into the ark are also very fake looking. Most of the animals look like cartoon characters. Finally, I was surprised to see Anthony Hopkins as Methuselah because he's hardly in any movies . . . especially portraying a wise, old man.

The Burgomaster · April 06, 2014, 04:40:06 PM

Oh, and I forgot to mention the costumes. They looked more like leftover wardrobe from THE ROAD WARRIOR than costumes you would expect to see in a biblical epic.

indianasmith · April 06, 2014, 09:20:07 PM

I was gonna check this one out in the theaters, but having read up a good bit on it, I may wait for DVD instead.

FatFreddysCat · April 08, 2014, 10:52:04 AM

Apparently Christian groups are up in arms about this film taking so many "liberties" from the Bible story (i.e. "THERE ARE NO ROCK GIANTS IN THE BIBLE!")

alandhopewell · April 08, 2014, 01:53:15 PM

Quote from: FatFreddysCat on April 08, 2014, 10:52:04 AM
Apparently Christian groups are up in arms about this film taking so many "liberties" from the Bible story (i.e. "THERE ARE NO ROCK GIANTS IN THE BIBLE!")

Exactly.

Rev. Powell · April 08, 2014, 03:34:53 PM

Quote from: FatFreddysCat on April 08, 2014, 10:52:04 AM
Apparently Christian groups are up in arms about this film taking so many "liberties" from the Bible story (i.e. "THERE ARE NO ROCK GIANTS IN THE BIBLE!")

But there are giants in the Bible, in Genesis 6:4, the Noah story, and it doesn't describe what they look like...

Haven't seen the movie and maybe the CGI looks bad, but I don't see how any Biblical literalist could complain about giants. I could understand them complaining if there were no giants.

Jim H · April 08, 2014, 08:27:14 PM

Quote from: Rev. Powell on April 08, 2014, 03:34:53 PM
Quote from: FatFreddysCat on April 08, 2014, 10:52:04 AM
Apparently Christian groups are up in arms about this film taking so many "liberties" from the Bible story (i.e. "THERE ARE NO ROCK GIANTS IN THE BIBLE!")

But there are giants in the Bible, in Genesis 6:4, the Noah story, and it doesn't describe what they look like... Haven't seen the movie and maybe the CGI looks bad, but I don't see how any Biblical literalist could complain about giants. I could understand them complaining if there were no giants.

There are giants, and also there are what are possibly angels (or something, I think the King James bible calls them "sons of God") who have children with men, so I'd assume there are hybrid-beings who aren't human as well.

By the way, you can tell the entire biblical Noah story in a paragraph. Here we go: the world is filled with violence and evil. Noah is the one righteous man who walks with God. So God tells him to build an ark, take two of every animal (well, six of the clean animals) and lots of plants, take his family with him, and wait it out. The world floods, everyone dies but Noah and his family, the Ark eventually rests atop a mountain, then the water starts to sink back. Noah sends out birds to check to see if there is land, eventually they don't come back, and him and his family leave and evidently reseed the earth. Noah gets a vineyard, gets drunk, his son sees him naked and tells his two brothers. The two brothers walk backwards and throw a cloth over Noah, who wakes up and is enraged at the son who saw him naked, so he curses him into servitude to the other brothers. Everyone lives a really, really long time and has lots and lots of kids.

I think the part laying out the descendants of Noah is longer than the flood story. There's plenty of room to write in extra scenes and build out the narrative if someone wants to. Really, there's a lot of very good stories/source material in the bible. I'm surprised they haven't done a new version of Samson. He's basically a superhero.

Also, the Noah flood story is nearly identical to the Utnapishtim story from the Gilgamesh epic. Both are fascinating reading really.

By the way, the film is directed and written by Darren Aronofsky. Ya know, who did Black Swan, Pi, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream and the Fountain. So, don't toss the movie out as pure pap immediately. Haven't seen it yet, but the Aronofsky name alone makes me curious.