Noah (2014)

[Wormhole]

This is one weird-ass movie.

 

It's ambitious. Aronofsky's talent is on display. It's beautifully shot, although the CGI is weak at times. The "creation" sequence is brilliant.

 

But the plotting of the movie is a mess. Like others have said, once the flood begins, the film truly derails. Not one scene on the ark is believable. It becomes a clusterfuck of badly-conceived family conflict and character beats. The actors do their best to make it all believable, but the greatest cast ever assembled couldn't save this script. 

 

C-

[mdot1982]

I had only seen the movie poster with Crowe holding an axe or weapon of some sort so I figured this would be a nice bloody action flick. First fight sequence was great, movie fell off the edge of a cliff after that and it became laughable. In my opinion.

 

F

[Omario]

Absolutely terrible. What a way to butcher the original story and make a mockery of it. 

 

6 armed ugly stone giants that looked as though it was done by stop motion models. 

 

What was the point of Hams character. I didnt understand anything about him. Just pathetic all round. Worse movie i have seen this year.

 

F 

[Olive]

I didn't like it.5.0/10

[FTF]

I had only seen the movie poster with Crowe holding an axe or weapon of some sort so I figured this would be a nice bloody action flick.

seriously? lol

[DAR]

The performances were good and it was beautifully shot. But story wise the film is a mess and frankly kind of boring. C-

Edited August 21, 2014 by DAR

[The Futurist]

I still don't know what this movie was about.

I may have the st00pid disease but this made very little sense to me, Deus Ex Machinas tend to be boring after a while.

Why Hannibal Lecter had the power to give Hermione her period ?

[Ezen Baklattan]

I feel like it was a mixed bag for me.

 

I see that there was greatness in it, especially during the Creation sequence and the emotional buildup during the climax, and the story is told in a more spiritual than religious angle, which really helps the film, primarily in the pains of Noah dealing with his sometimes traumatic journey. The acting and production values are all fantastic, and the ambition here is absolutely obvious. Props to Paramount for going through on a film like this in this day and age.

 

Having said that, I feel like the ambition comes through in too many different ways at times, and the movie almost struggles to decide what it wants to be at times. A family drama? A biblical epic? An environmental parable? I feel like this pull from various directions also lessens the impact of some scenes on me during the middle act, which does suffer from some obvious pacing problems. I also feel like the movie could have afforded a bit more subtlety in some regards, especially in Noah's determination, then questioning, of following God. Some moments just felt like they were making it too obvious, especially when you can play a drinking game of how many times Noah says something along the lines of 'humans suck.' in the first act.

 

But I digress. It's an interesting and mostly well made mess that touches on greatness at times. I'll take an ambitious film that misses a few marks over a cookie cutter film that successfully goes through the motions any day.

[The Stingray]

Ambitious and visionary. It's a bit messy and overlong, but never uninteresting. And it's always refreshing to see a blockbuster with an identity and that feels like it was made by a filmmaker and not a committee. Great performance from Crowe too.

 

7.5/10
 

[IndustriousAngel]

On 31.1.2016 at 0:29 PM, The Stingray said:

Ambitious and visionary. It's a bit messy and overlong, but never uninteresting. And it's always refreshing to see a blockbuster with an identity and that feels like it was made by a filmmaker and not a committee. Great performance from Crowe too.

 

7.5/10
 

I tend to agree ... I'm still unsure what Aronofsky was aiming for but the story lends itself to powerful imagery and that he did deliver, plus a nice (realistic) turn on the messiah/prophet theme - it's no picnic being a religious nut. Very powerful, but there were also some rather silly and/or superfluous sequences ... the whole Methuselah sideline was not necessary imho. On the whole I gave it 6/10, but there are A-worthy sequences in Noah.