When hearing about who was directing and starring, I instantly wanted to check this out.
Director Darren Aronofsky has always been known for his psychological thrillers that do not have a look of a big budget blockbuster. This one however, looks a little soft by his standards and could be a good starter for non-Aronofsky fans if they feel they will not understand his previous material at first.
For his leading actor Russell Crowe, I find him to be an impressive actor with a high quality portfolio. Starring as one of Christianity's most well known figures, the pressure was certainly on the New Zealand born Australian to pull off another mesmerizing performance.
With Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson, there is certainly potential in there for success.
Before going in to see it, I have always believed that religion can interpreted in many ways. For most people, they see Noah as a man with a incredibly look white beard with a staff bringing in animals two-by-two in an attempt to save God's creatures while he punishes man. With it being Aronofsky, you know it will not be as simple as that.
From the opening, I could see that Aronofsky is interested by the biblical text but is still not afraid on putting his own layer to the tale. I felt that there was enough of the source material used to good effect that not only gives the right message about the story of Noah, but keeps us entertained with Aronofsky's flavor.
There were a few odd additions which were clearly not from the original text. It was obvious that that was to bring in the mainstream audience which I think is great and yet I felt it will not distract you enough from the main story.
The performances were pretty solid all-round. Crowe gave us a Noah we would never associate with, but I felt it was a Noah we needed to see especially in the final third of the film. Jennifer Connelly's character gave us necessary chemistry with Noah so we can learn a lot more about the man. Anthony Hopkins was vintage Hopkins and it seems he is at a point in his career where he just does whatever he wants now and he can still win fans over. Emma Watson continues to stretch her acting skills further away from just the Harry Potter franchise. Her versatility is there for all to see and I hope to see her become the next British acting powerhouse in many award ceremonies that are yet to come. Also, Ray Winstone gives us a good villain and portrays the dark side of man very well I thought.
The only negative that is worth mentioning was the occasional poor CGI. The majority of it worked well to the environment around it, but now and again there was some that looked quite dated. But I think as a whole the CGI was pretty good.
Overall, I did enjoy it, felt entertained and was interested by the portrayal Aronofsky showed us. It felt to me that it was a great blend of the biblical text that can be presented in the feature film with enough additions to dramatize it but not distract from the situation. Aronofsky is an accomplished film director, he is ambitious and is not afraid to leap off the fence. However, he also knows where to draw the line, but still get his message across.
It is a well directed film that shows how man were rightfully punished by their creator, how Noah was chosen but not righteous, how creation was perfect and should not be abused but objectified. The messages it gave does explain the importance of various things such as baptism, judgment and salvation to name but a few.
I hope devout Christians as well as movie-goers see it in the right way as I did, instead of being negative just for the sake of them even attempting of making a religious story to be put on the big screen. If you saw religious messages in Aronofsky's The Fountain then you definitely will see it in this.
Rating: 7/10
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