So my vacation is almost up, and I shall return to yonder U.S. Midwest. It has been a lot of fun and very enlightening on several levels. I feel like I have a much clearer direction for life than I did 2 weeks ago, and more confidence in what I am doing as well. I wish I could have done more writing, but grad school will not relent, and I wanted to spend time with people more than myself, so thus something for another time; I just have to get through another year of grad school and then I shall be oodles more of free!!! So today I decided to get up early and go watch the film Noah. I had heard bad things and good things and also had my own preconceived notions, but nothing really determined. Now after watching the film, I certainly have a strong opinion of it. It is bad. The film started out really strongly with it's take on the Biblical account, even though it took a number of liberties, but it wasn't bad at that point in the beginning. Then everything started going wrong once Noah began building the Ark. The acting was excellent and compelling, but Darren Aronofsky strayed so far from just the spirit of what was written in the Bible, forget the facts, but the man truly did not study the entire Bible. Noah and God were depicted as cold, ruthless, and out of touch with what people needed; also God was not depicted as the ultimate ruler and authority of the cosmos, but rather "The Creator." Mr. Aronofsky was partially responsible for writing the screenplay, and even though it may have been written relatively well, the man took such liberties that it actually worked against the lot, story and characters. I am all for adapting and even taking artistic license with Biblical accounts of people and their struggles as long as the truth remains. Honestly, it wasn't even that great of a film regardless of the severe lack of accuracy it possessed. It was interesting at the beginning, since that was an unexplored part of the story, but then it became so boring and convoluted when Noah began building the Ark, and then during their stay on the Ark when the Flood came it became even more boring all the way to the very end, which sucked. Russell Crowe made a good Noah, but I would have chosen differently, someone less action based, but his performance was excellent. Noah's wife played by Jennifer Connelly was well played, although I would have written her character a little more gutsier and less submissive. Logan Lerman was Ham (he is best known for his work The Olympian Series) and he did well with his character, although his character was completely and utterly written wrong. Ray Winstone was the villain, Tubal-cain, and he was written well and did a good job with his performance. I would have liked to have seen his relationship with Noah grown a whole lot more, but alas it wasn't. Anthony Hopkins played himself as Methusaleh (an almost Yoda like comparison to his character), and the rest of the cast did relatively well, even Emma Watson as Ila, Shem's wife, did a very good job and her character was written well, although once again I wish they would have done more with it. The special effects were okay, the music by Clint Mansell was actually quite good, the cinematography was well done, and I have to say that the only bit of the film that was perfectly accurate was what the Ark looked like, and it looked quite believable. Noah is an interesting film that people can dialog about the actual story and the significance of what happened, along with the fall of humanity from perfection, and how it moved forward and what people were looking forward to, but as a film all on it's own, I wouldn't waste my time again watching this film. Why you ask? Two major things: huge inaccuracies that take away from the story, plot and characters, and it is just plain boring. I can watch boring or depressing films, if the performances of the actors and actresses blow me away, but not if they don't. You won't miss out on much if you don't see this film; the director did better with Black Swan.Noah featurette
Noah clip
Fargo television series trailer (looks interesting and it has a good cast; who knows)
