Darren Aronofsky is one of the most talented writers and directors of the modern age of cinema. We know this for a fact, we have seen his handiwork firsthand and we’ve either been deeply impressed or genuinely affected by the way his stories unfold. He is responsible for heartbreaking projects such as Requiem for a Dream, and terrifying stories of obsession like The Fountain and Black Swan. However, whenever an arthouse director decides to dive into a conventional blockbuster, it sounds like bad news to everyone. On top of that, this story is an adaptation of an incredibly important biblical story.
How to Download Noah
You can download the film from a digital store. You can also stream it. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you like Russel Crowe, check him out also as John Nash in A Beautiful Mind or Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator.
Noah – the Movie Review
Everyone is aware of Noah’s ark; it is a story older than time itself and has been around for two thousand years at the very least. Noah is set in a world where humankind has become full of sin and so of course, God decides that there needs to be a change.
He decides to flood the entire world and to choose the most pious person as the survivor who will repopulate the earth to create a world that is rid of sin, pride, and injustice. This is the story of Noah, the man who builds an ark to ensure the survival of humanity, and each species in the animal kingdom.
The film depicts the unsurmountable task that is thrown down upon Noah, he is supposed to build an ark big enough to fit not only his family but also a breeding pair of each animal that lives in this world. Ari Handel and Aronofsky wrote this film together, as they have a plethora of films before this one. However, the fantastical tale of the legendary survivor Noah was a bit too ambitious for them.
This results in a film that is sloppy, making mistakes that every conventional blockbuster film does. It relies too heavily on the spectacle, and quite less on its characters who need to be developed a tad more. They are not exactly the biblical versions that we know of, and the film takes a lot of liberties in its depiction of the events.
Of course, when you have underdeveloped characters, the pacing of the plot will automatically begin to decrease in quality. This happened egregiously in this film, it starts out at snail-like pacing, slowly building up to a big revelation.
Afterward, it moves a bit too fast as we see Noah’s ark being created within less than half an hour of runtime. It gives a mere 10 minutes of screen time to the actual flood and the survival arc. After that, it’s just a montage of philosophical conversations, moody shots, and random montages as the characters are dealing with the aftermath while trying to repopulate the earth.
On the surface, this seems like an ample amount of time to explore all of these themes. However, it barely scratches the surface, leaving a lot of the character arcs feeling unfulfilled, and the characters feeling undeveloped. In fact, most of the film feels like it flew by whereas the intro and climax feel like they’re not moving at all. The only thing holding these characters up is the fantastic acting by the actors here, each one of them performs amicably.
Russell Crowe is the obvious standout, one of the most phenomenal actors of our generation gives an amazing performance as Noah. Jennifer Connelly is also here, who gives another amazing performance to add to her catalog. Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Douglas Booth are there to give great supporting performances. But Sir Anthony Hopkins is the one who takes the cake. Despite having a shorter role as Methuselah, he makes sure that his presence is felt throughout the film.
Visually this film is outstanding, Aronofsky does not fail with the cinematography and his proficiency in color grading. In fact, a lot of shots and the lighting techniques used in this film are simply articulate, depicting how much control the director has. Now, combine that with a well-composed soundtrack by Clint Mansell and you have a high-quality product in terms of atmosphere and style.
The Verdict
Albeit highly stylized, and entirely unique in the way it adapts the biblical story, Noah suffers from a generic trope burnout. It relies quite heavily on the spectacle of Noah’s ark but fails to convey the deeply emotional journeys, philosophical conflicts, and humanistic stories that needed to be told here. A lot of them are sidelined in an effort to make sure this is a fun popcorn film for the audiences, which just does not fit with the story.
