Today's Review: Noah

Noah: ***/*****, or 6/10

You have to applaud his boldness, as Darren Aronofsky isn't afraid to seek out controversy with his first blockbuster movie. After sticking to the experimental and independent corners of contemporary American cinema for decades and continuously teasing the industry with his alleged plans to direct a big budget film for a major studio on more than one occasion (RoboCop for example), Aronofsky finally did just that. He hasn't made it easy on himself, opting for a Biblical epic that needs to appease both the religious spectators and the general international audience that does not care much for Old-Testament overtones, in a time where the divide between the tastes of both has parted as wide as Moses did the Red Sea. With Noah, Aronofksy makes a brave attempt to keep everybody emotionally invested in the story of the man chosen by God to preserve His creation, but it proves an undertaking as monumental as saving the whole of the animal kingdom on a single boat.

Noah's main problem is it must be faithful enough to the source material without being so religious as to scare away non-believers, as the studio can't afford to choose one part of the film's potential audience over the other to recuperate from its 125 million dollar budget. Concessions to both parties had to be made, and the result is an obvious, uncomfortable attempt at making a Biblical epic feel less Biblical but no less epic. If the studio ever thought they could have made a final cut of this movie that wouldn't be prone to harsh judgment from Christian groups, screentesting three different rough cuts – none of them in line with Aronofsky's own vision – to strong criticism from a religious audience made them aware of the impossibility of that endeavour. And so Aronofksy's cut is the one shown in theaters, bound to undergo the inevitable public scrutiny.

Noah follows Russell Crowe as the titular character. A descendant from the line of Seth, he and his family live a life of vegetarian righteousness and solitude, away from the rest of mankind, the offspring of the murderer Cain, which has deteriorated into a semi-industrial yet barbaric state and devoured the natural world. Avoiding contact with other people, Noah and his wife (Jennifer Connelly) have kept their three sons sheltered, teaching them to respect creation above al else. Naturally, the boys prove curious as to the way of life from their violent brethren, the rebellious middle son, Ham (Logan Lerman) most of all. Plagued by disturbing visions of humanity suffering under a great flood and inexplicable signs of the Creator – a being adressed only as such throughout the piece, as the term 'God' appears taboo – Noah seeks out his grandfather Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins) to learn what It has in store for him. The strange and somewhat childish hermit informs him that the Creator is planning on cleansing His world by water, washing away all the wickedness of man, while Noah is destined to save the innocent, the animals, from extinction. And thus Noah sets out to built a vessel to do just that.

Even a man as tough as Crowe cannot hope to perform such a Herculean task by himself, but thankfully Aronofksy has added some stone giants to aid him in his divine labour. Fallen angels that were abandoned by God because they desired to help the sons of Cain in their growth, they exist as supernatural beings of light trapped in volcanic rock bodies, deformed and in agony over the fact men returned their kindness with mayhem and war. Of course, a man as obnoxiously righteous and noble as Noah wins them over easily. These so-called Watchers now do more than observe, helping Noah to complete his task and protect the Ark they construct together over eight years time. The stone giants form a welcome addition to the rather dreary Noah and his one-note family, dull to watch thus far. It's also clear that much of the budget for visual effects went into designing them, at least more so than the budget allocated to rendering the animals that come pouring into the Ark when it is completed. Their design, which bears to mind both utterly fantastic and prehistoric creatures, compels the audience to consider Noah even more of a fantasy picture: unless Aronofsky means to take some sort of evolutionary process into account, envisioning these animals as almost their contemporary counterparts, but not just quite there yet.

Naturally, it's the human element that proves key in making us care about Noah's plight. The selfless man must confront the vicious king Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone) and his legion of followers as the rains start to fall and the monarch gets wind of the Creator's purpose for his people. Winstone as always makes for an alarming villain, but there is an uneasy truth in the king's philosophical rhetoric as well: God made man in his image, so does that not also include his capacity for destruction? After all, how much difference is there between a God who feels like destroying mankind to save His creation and a king who kills to feed his people? Though the resulting thunderstorm battle between Noah and the Watchers and Tubal-Cain's vast forces proves a fairly thrilling battle – a comparison to the Helm's Deep battle from The Two Towers does not feel inappropriate – it's such exploration of the nature of man and his relation to the Creator's purpose that make for Noah's most interesting aspect, as could be expected from Aronofsky. Unfortunately, once the battle is over and the waters swallow the world, the film has reached its narrative climax, but Aronofsky spends another 45 minutes examining the emotional climax, as Noah's family finally gets to evolve into more than cardboards characters. A little late to the game, as an overdrawn ending forces itself upon the spectator.

It's in this third act of the film that Noah emerges as a true religious fanatic, claiming to alone understand his Creator's purpose as His chosen one. The protagonist feels that God intended for humanity to die out entirely, including him and his family, for the greater good of the innocent animals. Fortunately the only woman in his company eligible for breeding, a young girl once rescued on the road (Emma Watson, with an overly strong off-putting English accent), was barren, but proves no more thanks to Methuselah's convenient magic. As his oldest son gets her pregnant, Noah makes no secret from his intention to murder her child if it's a girl. And so the noble hero quickly degenerates into a violent misogynist terrorizing his family for months on end. Suffice to say, the audience quickly loses all sympathy for him. Maybe this new side of Noah is what ticked off the religious audience in the first place, as it wanted to make clear that not all true believers condone such homicidal, fanatically zealous behavior. To make matters worse, the king managed to slip aboard the Ark unseen and lick his wounds in the lower levels aided by the rebellious teenager Ham, who is angry with his father for not allowing him to find a girl to share his life with before the Apocalypse. It takes nine months for the waters to recede and Noah's crisis of faith to reach its crescendo, while the king is eating his way through the animal kingdom in the lower decks and Noah doesn't even notice species dying out rapidly on his watch. Of course Noah predictably chooses love over blind faith in the end and kills the king: and so generic Hollywood conventions triumph over Aronofksy's fascinating but at times disturbing notions on the human condition in relation to its supreme being.

For those that feared Aronofsky's signature style is lost adhering to the rules of Hollywood, they can rest assured to some extent as it is only tempered. Aronofsky still gets to revel in fast cutting montages and creepy dream sequences as often before, applying the former into a neat but contextually awkward sequence of life's evolution. The director also makes wonderful use of the fabulous landscapes provided by the Iceland locations to give the viewer a sense of awe throughout the picture. And as in his earlier work, he's not afraid to occasionally outright shock the audience, illustrated by a nightmarish sequence in which Noah visits Tubal-Cain's encampment in secret and witnesses animals being torn apart alive by hungry mobs, who have also taken to cannibalism. The disturbing imagery effectively evokes dark and moody paintings of hell and Judgment Day by the likes of Bosch and convinces us that whatever truth there is in the king's words, Tubal-Cain is not a good guy. So we are left with picking the side of a man who makes his family cry as he threatens to kill newborns on behalf of a God who destroys the world to start over, in the hopes of getting it right this time. It's ironic the studio tried to do a similar thing in the editing room to get that final cut of Noah that appeases everybody, despite the misgivings of the director who had to do all the hard work. Man failed God (again) as was bound to happen, and though there's solid action galore and a decent time allotted for thoughtfully debating the relationship between man and his creator, Aronofksy similarly could never have succeeded in making Noah work for everybody.