Review of Noah (2014)

I liked it. It wasn’t your typical ‘Christian’ movie where everything is predictable, but if you compare scripture with the second coming and our times, it is similar re: the violence of our times compared to the violence in the movie. Our world is full of violence, war, rape, murder. It was like that in a few scenes. I believe the reason Christians and christian filmmakers didn’t approve is because Christian films have expectations: no or minimal violence, even Christians portraying ‘bad guys’ are expected to only go so far, and the ending is happy (ie, someone is saved, the team wins, a marriage is saved, etc). In real life, these days, often those things don’t happen, but when they do, they are miracles. What we call God is called the Creator in the movie. There is a lot of symbolism relating to original sin, the garden, temptation, good vs. evil and who is really capable of sin (all of us). The creation story is told. There are fallen angels in the story called “The Watchers.” There is temptation and sin within the ‘innocent,’ like the garden of Eden. At one point in the movie, there is a scene similar to Abraham and Isaac on the mountain- a test of Noah… There is also hope and the ending is full of that. Although the producer took a lot of artistic license, he made a really beautiful movie, and if one can look beyond the violence, they can see what it is really about: hope for a new beginning.