A biblical movie needs more than faith.
But “Noah,” Darren Aronofsky’s often ludicrous, occasionally thoughtful epic, puts theology front-and-center, and doubles down on its blockbuster ingredients — like adding huge rock monsters with glowing eyes (more on them later).
But Aronofsky’s film is most powerful when its title character rages and suffers through what seems to be a suicide mission. Those scenes keep this ambitious Old Testament epic from being a washout.
The movie starts with an odd, five-minute animated prologue recapping the tale of Adam and Eve; their sons Cain, Abel and Seth; and Cain’s murder of Abel. Much of the film blends Bible verse with several script additions done with good intentions.
The descendants of Cain, per the Bible, are vicious, while Seth’s are virtuous. Of course, Noah (Russell Crowe) is in Seth’s bloodline.
After having visions of an apocalyptic flood and the preservation of the world’s animals, Noah confers with his grandfather Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins), the oldest living man, and decides to move his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and sons Shem, Ham and Japheth to higher ground. Along the way, they find a wounded girl named Ila (one of the unnamed “wives” the Bible alludes to).
Settling at the outskirts of a violence-filled village, Noah builds an ark, here aided by “Watchers” — fallen angels trapped inside giant stone clusters. (In the Bible, these are Nephilim).
As the ark is built, teenage Shem (Douglas Booth) falls in love with Ila (Emma Watson) as mateless Ham (Logan Lerman) seethes, becoming a typical Hollywood-style bad seed. Then, as we know, two of every creature arrive from around the globe. (Aronofsky’s film wisely provides Noah with a smoky fume that works like biblical Benadryl to put the animals to sleep even before the first raindrop falls.)
When the water does come, Tubal-cain (Ray Winstone), brutal king of Cain’s descendants, wants a spot on the ark (he’s mentioned in Genesis but here is upgraded to villain). Yet Noah has watched the children of Cain ruin the land — the film adds that they’re also hunting beasts to extinction — so they’re left to die. Before the rains stop and the ark lands at Mount Ararat, a tortured Noah aims to sacrifice Shem and Ila’s unborn child — in Aronofsky’s script, Noah believes humans should not be saved.