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Entertaining Criticism: Noah

By Maurika Smutherman

On April 9, 2014

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Russell Crowe has made waves this weekend as the star of one of the year's most anticipated films, Noah. The movie is based on a graphic novel co-written by Noah director Darren Aronofsky and loosely follows the epic tale of Noah and the Ark. The film premiered March 28 in the United States and has raked in $97,925,854 at the box office; it has been met with mixed reviews.

Noah begins with the titular character (Russell Crowe- Gladiator) as a child. He is about to receive a family heirloom (the skin of the original serpent of Eden) from his father, Lamech (Marton Csokas- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), when a crowd of people, led by King Tubal-cain (Ray Winstone- Snow White and the Huntsman) appears. The king kills Lamech and steals the heirloom, forcing Noah to run away.

Years later, Noah has started his own family. He has a wife named Naameh (Jennifer Connelly- Blood Diamond) and three sons; Shem (Douglas Booth- LOL), Ham (Logan Lermen- The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Japheth (Leo McHugh Carroll- Fred Clause). The family also adopts a girl, Ila (Emma Watson- The Perks of Being a Wallflower). After having a prolific dream about water, Noah is able to gather a following; a group of fallen angels called "Watchers." Noah begins building an ark, which takes eight years to complete. Animals are brought aboard the ark in pairs and just like the original tale, a huge flood engulfs the entire planet.

Interestingly enough, controversy surrounded the film after the self-professed atheist and Black Swan director promised to deliver "the least biblical film ever made."

Aronofsky describes Noah's protagonist as "the first environmentalist" and his approach is clearly illustrated in the film. Noah features many supernatural elements, some of which are just ridiculous.

"If I had been watching the film alone, I would have got up and left the theater as soon as the stone-like Transformer creatures [the "Watchers"] appeared on screen," said filmmaker Michael Dorian.

"Noah is a brilliant, compelling, beautifully-mounted, beautifully-acted piece of storytelling conceived for the sinister purpose of leading people to believe that Christianity and Judaism are something they are not," said BreitBart.com columnist John Nolte.

I couldn't have said it better. Despite its beautiful cinematography, Noah has been twisted to follow the director's anti-religious aesthetic. Although I applaud Aronofsky for being so bold as to take this story and turn it into a plea to save the environment, the film, as well as his graphic novel, could have been made without using the Bible as a manipulation tool.

With all the criticism, Noah has garnered a 76 percent rating on RottenTomatoes.com.

"Despite its flamboyant, and at times goofy, fantasy trappings, Noah is firmly anchored by the fierce moral intensity of Aronofsky's vision, which is, if anything, more Old Testament than the Old Testament itself," said film critic Christopher Orr.

Catch Noah at your nearest theater today.