Review of Noah (2014) by Tatsuhito K — 07 Jul 2015

What a bold, brave, and inventive piece of art. This $130 million biblical epic will surely divide the audience, especially among the pure Christians. Darren Aronofsky has adapted what is essentially a few-pages-long biblical tale into a two-hour long epic film, and added things that are not written in the source material.

It's packed with dazzling visuals and impressive set-pieces; it benefits hugely from its strong production values and Aronofsky's direction is masterful. But what makes Noah stay grounded and emotionally involving is the depth of the central human characters, and Russell Crowe gives a solid and ferocious performance as a god-loving yet tormented Noah.

The movie is utterly preposterous and very flawed, but it is also vastly entertaining, quite philosophical, and has the kind of fantasy/Sci-Fi elements that movies such as the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have.

As someone who is an atheist, I have to say I was very interested from start to finish. There were a couple of dull and nonsensical moments, but for the most part I was quite astonished by the scale, the special effects, the spectacular score by the great Clint Mansell, and the interesting ideas about the beginning of everything and belief.

Noah is audacious and bombastic, but it is artistic, thought-provoking (at least to me) and overall a well-done movie. I've seen the movie 3 times and I enjoyed every time.