NOAH is a slightly conflicted movie, but ultimately fascinating and respectful to its source, though a few things are missing. It also feels like its from a much longer cut that was edited down in order to keep it manageable, but a few seams still show through. Its pretty much the tale everyone knows, but in the first hour, it seems like someone elses Crunchy Peanut Butter Fantasy Epic got into NOAHs Dark Chocolate,with its interpretation of The Watchers from The Book Of Enoch, who play a pretty big part. These would be the first Angels who came to Earth to teach men, and got into trouble for it with the Creator, whos named here as such. No God, just Creator. It works. The Watchers her are still those Angels but are also cursed creatures of rock...this part is a bit shakier and plays out a bit on the strange side of things. As is also a part involving Tubal-Cain, a forger of bronze in the Old Testament. Here, hes... different. Anthony Hopkins Methuselah fares better, being closer to the original version. More or less. To its credit, NOAH also indicates that the building of The Ark took some time and it offers a clever suggestion as to how all those animals were kept on board without incident. After a fairly epic hour, complete with the threat of war and rock beings and some pretty hairy stuff for a movie like this, the rains begin and things settle down for a more internally epic tale, as Noah struggles mightily with the weight of his responsibility and whether hes interpreting the Creators word properly, leading to some harrowing scenes on board. This is NOAH for a modern generation. It seems like Daron Aranofsky gave the studio what it would want and in turn got to say what he wanted. Its all beautifully acted, great to see Russell Crowe on his game again, and Aranofsky turns in some wonderful and even heartbreaking visuals, including a brief recreation of Gustave Dorés The Great Deluge. Aranofsky chose a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, versus the usual 2.35:1, and it works, giving a lot of shots more height then usual. Worth seeing in the theaters, if you can.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 02:32:19 +0000