There's a lot of good stuff in Noah. Most of the actors give strong performances, the atmosphere is perfectly set up, and the story is is a an excellent if not entirely faithful adaptation of the Biblical tale. I especially liked the angle of Noah going Nietzsche Wannabe and being convinced that all of mankind is doomed, even he and his family, and his subsequent stint as Villain Protagonist.
Emma Watson as Ila and Ray Winstone as Tubal Cain are particularly compelling in this film. Watson brilliantly portrays the cocktail of emotions that come with her situation (a barren girl in an Adam and Eve Plot), and really sells those heavy emotional scenes that could have slipped into narmvery quickly. Winstone, meanwhile, portrays a villain whom you can empathize with but not sympathize, and who you can still root against; you can completely understand where he's coming from, but his goals are dastardly and cannot be cast as Well-Intentioned Extremist or anything like that. This is not something easy to accomplish. Out of all the performers in this movie, I'd say Winstone's performance stuck with me the most.
Crowe, however...doesn't shine here. He's bland as white toast for the first half of the film; there's hardly any emotion or effort put into his lines. Even when he goes batshit insane, he still doesn't seem like he's buying his own character. Admittedly, his character wasn't well written either, so that may have something to do with it.
This movie also witnesses the return of the dreaded Shaky Cam. It is never welcome in this movie. Not once, not even during the chaotic scenes, because it makes it impossible to see the chaos. And there are poorly shot, seizure-inducing timelapse scenes that show what they need to show, but while giving the viewer nausea on the way, which is entirely avoidable. And barring the Watchers, the CGI is awful. The "dog" at the beginning of the movie is glaring, and it goes downhill from there; the animals, the sudden growing forest, the corpses and dying people on the rock, all of it is just incredibly obvious and it distracts from the main action. And this is from a guy who normally doesn't object to CGI.
Overall, this movie earns a B-. Go see it, and enjoy what it has to offer — it has a lot.
Good, but not without its problems
There's a lot of good stuff in Noah. Most of the actors give strong performances, the atmosphere is perfectly set up, and the story is is a an excellent if not entirely faithful adaptation of the Biblical tale. I especially liked the angle of Noah going Nietzsche Wannabe and being convinced that all of mankind is doomed, even he and his family, and his subsequent stint as Villain Protagonist.
Emma Watson as Ila and Ray Winstone as Tubal Cain are particularly compelling in this film. Watson brilliantly portrays the cocktail of emotions that come with her situation (a barren girl in an Adam and Eve Plot), and really sells those heavy emotional scenes that could have slipped into narm very quickly. Winstone, meanwhile, portrays a villain whom you can empathize with but not sympathize, and who you can still root against; you can completely understand where he's coming from, but his goals are dastardly and cannot be cast as Well-Intentioned Extremist or anything like that. This is not something easy to accomplish. Out of all the performers in this movie, I'd say Winstone's performance stuck with me the most.
Crowe, however...doesn't shine here. He's bland as white toast for the first half of the film; there's hardly any emotion or effort put into his lines. Even when he goes batshit insane, he still doesn't seem like he's buying his own character. Admittedly, his character wasn't well written either, so that may have something to do with it.
This movie also witnesses the return of the dreaded Shaky Cam. It is never welcome in this movie. Not once, not even during the chaotic scenes, because it makes it impossible to see the chaos. And there are poorly shot, seizure-inducing timelapse scenes that show what they need to show, but while giving the viewer nausea on the way, which is entirely avoidable. And barring the Watchers, the CGI is awful. The "dog" at the beginning of the movie is glaring, and it goes downhill from there; the animals, the sudden growing forest, the corpses and dying people on the rock, all of it is just incredibly obvious and it distracts from the main action. And this is from a guy who normally doesn't object to CGI.
Overall, this movie earns a B-. Go see it, and enjoy what it has to offer — it has a lot.