I have given this a generous 7 out of 10 despite its rather glaring flaws, due to the fact that while it was far from perfect it was nevertheless pretty entertaining, even if it felt like a 4 hour movie.
Noah sees Russell Crowe's Noah tasked with the mission of saving the innocents, or 'animals' and ending the failed reign of man on Planet Earth.
God, or 'The Creator' as he's referred to in this movie, spoke to Noah, preaching of an impending flood and that the only ones to be saved were himself, his family and the 'innocents'. Naturally this saving process was to be done via the construction of a surprisingly large and sturdy ark, and therefore only the most sheltered viewer wouldn't be aware this is a story from the Bible.
The biggest problem, and there are many, in this film is the process of characterisation, story-building, and 'preparation' for the great expedition in said ark takes an absolute age - while it certainly breeds good insight into why this is happening, it nevertheless feels painfully drawn out and I truly believed by the time we were seabound around 2+ hours had elapsed when barely one had.
There are also downsides in casting. Anthony Hopkins' brief cameo as an aged Methuselah just didn't work on any level, and neither did his Welsh accent. The man is a Hollywood legend but he felt placed here for star attraction rather than what he could bring to the role.
Ray Winstone's Tubal-cain is truly terrible - and I don't mean this as a slight on Winstone - but a heavy cockney accent equally destroyed the believability of a biblical character. His acting was acceptable, but he wasn't plausible. He also has the issue of being in so many commercials here in the UK that you half expected him to say 'it's got our name on it' or 'the most popular online sports betting company'.
Despite criticism, I personally felt Crowe's Noah was good. Crowe has a charm to him, an ability to make a charismatic character with presence, and to dull down his strong Aussie accent to make himself more credible. It worked here, like it did in Yuma. He's a very underrated actor.
The supporting cast was reasonable; Connelly did a solid job as Naameh and Emma Watson, struggling to break the Harry Potter shackles, wasn't bad either as Ila.
But the problem came down to the disjointed preparation along with the feeling that something just didn't quite overall click here. The CGI rock monsters (the 'Watchers') were actually funny, and I have no idea whose idea they were, because they looked ludicrous. Imagine LOTR's Treebeard in smaller rock form and you have some idea - they did not go with the movie here at all.
And the super-fast 'ground travel' sequences did not blend with the rest of the story either; it was plain what was being attempted but it felt forced and out of place.
Last but not least is the irritation that a movie about Noah and his ark spent so little time on the ark itself. It felt far too brief, after all the build up, the marquee prize of the story, that aforementioned ark, really didn't get the opportunity to shine.
One thing I do praise is the lack of overly religious connotations. The refusal to use the word 'God' and the general lack of theological twaddle was to be commended, because I didn't feel like being preached to for over two hours. Yes, there were some lines, like punishing man, the Garden of Eden, and other related topics but they weren't overly saturated through this.
But the CGI overall was surprisingly bad - fake animals looked fake, and some of the layers were painfully obvious.
But that said it was far from the worst film I've seen, and I enjoyed it enough not to feel horrified by the end, just a little let down by the especially large flaws.
Noah sees Russell Crowe's Noah tasked with the mission of saving the innocents, or 'animals' and ending the failed reign of man on Planet Earth.
God, or 'The Creator' as he's referred to in this movie, spoke to Noah, preaching of an impending flood and that the only ones to be saved were himself, his family and the 'innocents'. Naturally this saving process was to be done via the construction of a surprisingly large and sturdy ark, and therefore only the most sheltered viewer wouldn't be aware this is a story from the Bible.
The biggest problem, and there are many, in this film is the process of characterisation, story-building, and 'preparation' for the great expedition in said ark takes an absolute age - while it certainly breeds good insight into why this is happening, it nevertheless feels painfully drawn out and I truly believed by the time we were seabound around 2+ hours had elapsed when barely one had.
There are also downsides in casting. Anthony Hopkins' brief cameo as an aged Methuselah just didn't work on any level, and neither did his Welsh accent. The man is a Hollywood legend but he felt placed here for star attraction rather than what he could bring to the role.
Ray Winstone's Tubal-cain is truly terrible - and I don't mean this as a slight on Winstone - but a heavy cockney accent equally destroyed the believability of a biblical character. His acting was acceptable, but he wasn't plausible. He also has the issue of being in so many commercials here in the UK that you half expected him to say 'it's got our name on it' or 'the most popular online sports betting company'.
Despite criticism, I personally felt Crowe's Noah was good. Crowe has a charm to him, an ability to make a charismatic character with presence, and to dull down his strong Aussie accent to make himself more credible. It worked here, like it did in Yuma. He's a very underrated actor.
The supporting cast was reasonable; Connelly did a solid job as Naameh and Emma Watson, struggling to break the Harry Potter shackles, wasn't bad either as Ila.
But the problem came down to the disjointed preparation along with the feeling that something just didn't quite overall click here. The CGI rock monsters (the 'Watchers') were actually funny, and I have no idea whose idea they were, because they looked ludicrous. Imagine LOTR's Treebeard in smaller rock form and you have some idea - they did not go with the movie here at all.
And the super-fast 'ground travel' sequences did not blend with the rest of the story either; it was plain what was being attempted but it felt forced and out of place.
Last but not least is the irritation that a movie about Noah and his ark spent so little time on the ark itself. It felt far too brief, after all the build up, the marquee prize of the story, that aforementioned ark, really didn't get the opportunity to shine.
One thing I do praise is the lack of overly religious connotations. The refusal to use the word 'God' and the general lack of theological twaddle was to be commended, because I didn't feel like being preached to for over two hours. Yes, there were some lines, like punishing man, the Garden of Eden, and other related topics but they weren't overly saturated through this.
But the CGI overall was surprisingly bad - fake animals looked fake, and some of the layers were painfully obvious.
But that said it was far from the worst film I've seen, and I enjoyed it enough not to feel horrified by the end, just a little let down by the especially large flaws.