People Going Nuts Over "Noah".....Before its Release?

[St Giordano Bruno]

To me it is just like that flop of a big budget movie known "Waterworld" made in the mid 1990's only with very primitive technology to build the boat. 

[charde]

I enjoyed the movie. Not the best Aronofsky pic ever, but I could see what he was trying to accomplish -- especially in light of him always seeming fascinated by Noah (from interviews he's done).

Noah had a prophet mentality and was driven by his visions to do something incredibly odd (build this big boat that supposedly is going to hold all these animals that will just show up) in the face of the rest of the culture. The kind of stark tenacity and black-and-white judgment that fuels such a man has other impacts on his relationships and mentality as well. (Crowe does wonderfully bringing a rugged solidity to Noah that isn't always evident in the text.)

Some of the changes/expansions Aronosfky made involved exploring this aspect of Noah -- which in the movie contributes to a potentially dire outcome for his family and humanity in general. But it's a logical consequence of his personality style / visionary madness. It also parallels (if you accept it) how a God of judgment could still be seen as a God of love, because most people see the Flood as impossible to reconcile with the two.

This is also paralled by the subplot with the Watchers, which Aranofsky cobbled out of the stories of the Nephilim's angelic forebears in Genesis and text from the Book of Enoch. Here, the angels who tried to help man against God's will were damned to Earth in grotesque unfeeling bodies (damnation) but when they repented and sacrificed themselves for Noah, God restored them. Aranofsky is exploring that dynamic in Noah -- he can be a prophet of destruction, but is his heart also capable of mercy?

All the rabid one-note literalists who bitched about the movie not following their particular conservative verse-by-verse review of the story missed the point. It's interesting how much of "God" is actually in this movie made by a non-Christian, but they're too politically motivated to even notice.

Not my favorite Aranofsky movie, but well-acted and thematically interesting if one has a background in Christian faith, I guess... and Noah comes off as a real, consistent person and not some overglorified story puppet.

[stromboli]

"This is also paralled by the subplot with the Watchers, which Aranofsky cobbled out of the stories of the Nephilim's angelic forebears in Genesis and text from the Book of Enoch"

Yeah, I read the Book of Enoch on my way out of Mormonism. Give the guy credit, he did his homework. The Nephilim are barely mentioned in the bible but are important in the Book of Enoch. The whole "fallen angels lusting after earthly women" caught my attention. 

Mormonism mentions an encounter between Brigham Young and Bigfoot in his journals; and some people believed the angels' offspring, the Nephilim, were Bigfoot. Most people don't know the Bigfoot legends go back that far.

[charde]

Mormonism mentions an encounter between Brigham Young and Bigfoot in his journals; and some people believed the angels' offspring, the Nephilim, were Bigfoot. Most people don't know the Bigfoot legends go back that far.

Well, hey, see, I learned something already! :)

I had no idea of the secret Mormon <---> Bigfoot connection. I'm surprised it didn't make into Stone/Parker's "The Book of Mormon" as some kind of whimisical dance number.

[stromboli]

Well, hey, see, I learned something already! :)

I had no idea of the secret Mormon <---> Bigfoot connection. I'm surprised it didn't make into Stone/Parker's "The Book of Mormon" as some kind of whimisical dance number.

Not official church doctrine, but widely known. I am a descendant of Brigham Young, so when all the Bigfoot stuff started many years ago, I heard about it. Actually, Brigham extrapolated an old indian legend and turned them into "the Seed of Cain" which in Mormonism is the ancestry of blacks or anybody not "white and delightsome" Needless to say, shit has changed since then.

[charde]

I never thought of going to a movie just so I can declare it sucks.

Aw dude... you haven't really lived, then. ;)
I just don't want to pay for the privilege.

I'm actually looking for an online bootleg of "God Isn't Dead" just for that reason.
I guess if I felt truly daring, I'd find a copy of "Fireproof" w/ Kirk Cameron.

[stromboli]

Netflix. But I won't even go that low.