Noah

Year of release : 2014

Run time : 2h18m

Genre : Drama / Fantasy

Cast : Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connolly, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Anthony Hopkins

Director : Darren Aronofsky

The epic biblical drama is based on the Book of Genesis and the Book of Enoch, and was co-written by director Darren Aronofsky with Ari Handel.

The movie opens with the creation myth, and goes to Noah and his father, as he sees his father being k1lled by king Tubal-Cain for his land.

Now an adult, Noah lives in a tent with his wife and 3 sons away from civilization, as it is wicked and only knows how to k1ll for what the other has. He dreams of a great flood which will destroy everything, and tells his wife he feels he needs to do something,so they embark on a journey to see his grand father for answers. On their way there, they find a girl who's family has been k1lled and who is wounded, and take with them.

They also stumble upon the land of the fallen angels, the watchers, who don't believe God sent him a message. One of them believes him, and helps him get to his grand father with his family.

Noah's grandfather lives secluded, and hearing the news, offers him tea which gives him visions, and he understands he needs to build an ark for all the animals of the earth to take shelter in pairs.

He also gives him a seed from Eden, which when planted, grows a forest with streams, fast, so they'll have wood to build the ark, the waters, flowing across the earth, bringing the animals, birds, reptiles etc. , who drink from it, to the ark.

Seeing the seed from Eden created a small paradise, the watchers, now looking like rock formations, due to their fall, decide to help Noah build his ark.

Tubal-cain sees the flock of birds flying to Noah's ark, and asks him to offer him and his people shelter. Noah refuses.

Proving he doesn't deserve the be saved, Tubal-cain starts building weapons with his people, to k1ll Noah and his family, and take shelter in the ark (instead of building a ship with his people, they build weapons to k1ll and take other's belongings! Priorities! ). They still rob and k1ll people, k1lling the animals.

Noah also thinks God wants him to perish with his whole family (thinking people inherently evil) ,after rescuing the animals, and finding dry land for them! This creates conflict between him and his family, as one of his sons doesn't want to be alone, and wants to find a wife, but he doesn't let him ! And this is not all, but I'll give too many spoilers if I write more.

I personally enjoyed the movie, although it kept some parts from the books which inspired it out, like the reason for the flood, which was that creation was corrupted by the fallen angels who taught people spells and curses, how to create weapons, bred with the women creating giants who ate people, and how they (the fallen) genetically modified everything (remember Egyptian mythology and its mural depictions of humans with bird heads and so on?), to the point it had to be cleansed through a flood!

The books depict the angels of God cutting down the giant trees so the fallen and their seed (the giants / nephilim) won't be able to climb them and escape the flood!

Also, I think in the books there's no telling of Noah thinking God wanted humans to disappear, and wanting to k1ll his family.

The leads' existence looked pretty bleak, as they lived in a tent in a barren place. It looked like they were just surviving.

The grandfather had special abilities, but lived secluded in a cave to the age of 969, when he died in the great flood! Noah lived for 950 years!!! Noah was 500 years old when his sons were born!!! The ages of the characters are not specified in the movie, I researched them.

The actors were great, Jennifer Connolly and Emma Watson had to cry, especially Jennifer , who due to it, I think was the best.

Marton Csokas makes a 2 minute appearance.

The visual effects were great, like for example,in the beginning, in the creation sequence, the dream sequences and the flood scene.

I loved the soundtrack, written by Clint Mansell.

The movie received positive reviews, and grossed 359.2 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of about 160 million dollars, being the director's highest grossing movie.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a C!

The movie was banned in China and in some muslim countries due to obvious reasons.

The director first offered the role of Noah to Christian Bale and Michael Fassbender, who had other projects. Dakota Fanning was supposed to play Emma Watson's role, but left the project due to scheduling conflicts. Julianne Moore was considered to play Noah's wife while Liam Neeson and Val Kilmer were considered to play Tubal-cain.

Rating : Worth a watch !