I must admit that I went into this film with a negative predisposition. When the trailers said "The untold story of Noah" I thought "Eh? Untold?" Whether you believe in the Bible account of the Flood - and I do - may deeply affect whether you enjoy this movie or not. Indeed, whether you even go to see it.
The film is basically in 3 parts. First, the setup - a dull tale of Noah and his family eking out a sparse life in a barren land together with a brief, narrated history of the world from its creation through to its then current state of lawlessness and godlessness. The second part covers the flood itself - nowhere near blockbuster worthy effects, just a lot of rain and as late-night TV host David Letterman described it "Noah ends up on a cruise". The film neatly sidestepped Letterman's follow-up "The real problem was not getting all those animals into the Ark. It was keeping the Hippos away from the buffet!" by garnishing the story with a magical potion wafted about by Noah's family that put all the animals into hibernation. The final part is a dreary post-flood account of Noah getting drunk a lot, and the family shambling off into the sunset where they interbreed their way to where we are today.
If I bother to highlight the discrepancies between the Bible's version and director Darren Aronofsky's butchering of that story I'd be here all day. But what drugs he was on when he came up with the notion of stone monsters, fox-like creatures covered in scales, and a stowaway on the Ark itself are anybody's guess.
I know I annoyed my wife - who certainly wasn't brought up on the original story - every time I muttered my disgust at these directorial fabrications, but I'm glad I didn't watch it with a genuine skeptic / critic / hater of everything Biblical. You know who you are Bill.
No comments:
Post a Comment