Noah (2014)

If you follow me on Twitter, you know my review of Aronofsky’s newest masterpiece is going to be glowing.

Noah was glorious. I was hesitant to see it, I’d heard people saying it’s going to be bad, the religious source material (okay, the Bible) made me suspicious. Noah wasn’t defined by its source, or story, or actors, or screenplay even. It all came together, every inch of it was in perfect harmony. Aronofsky created a marvellous symbiotic film where every piece fit together, where each member of the cast fit every aspect of their character and each second the score’s volume was chosen perfectly.

Russell Crowe sings a bit, but so does Emma Watson, and the last is hauntingly beautiful, so I think even the Les Mis haters would be fine, because Crowe really gives his all as Noah, as disgusting as he is at moments, it’s impossible to not understand him. I wasn’t sure about Watson here, at first, but she and Jennifer Connelly, who played Noah’s wife, were miles ahead of the men in the film, and I often found myself speechless watching Logan Lerman, portaying Noah’s second son. The youngest son, who really reminded me of Bran from Game of Thrones, was the only one left without a storyline, but I can stand by that choice, as there was enough going on anyway, and that could’ve been pushing the line.

Did we really need Ray Winstone’s character to go that long of a way, though? It might be my gut talking, as I don’t tolerate that kind of stuff at all, but I felt like the tension was heightened to a level that high that it (1) made me physically sick and (2) started actually lowering itself. The climax of his story bordered on ridiculous for me. Maybe it’s great storytelling and I missed the mark here, but I felt like it was unnecessarily terrifying.

The visuals. Holy s–t, the visuals. When the first trailer came out, a lot of people (including yours truly) complained about the raw look of the CGI. In the months that followed, a lot of magic was worked on it, and the result is a gorgeous, enthralling, breathtaking sight all through the film. From Noah’s underwater dreams, mass scenes with Cain’s people and animals storming on the ark, it’s almost impossible to play favourites and yes, my mouth did fall open a few times and yep, I gasped for air (and clinged to my companion’s arm) a few times.

Going back to the beginning of the film, something that I most enjoyed, which came as a huge surprise to me, were the stories from the Bible. Only because of Sati’s Black Swan posts I knew to look out for hidden images (which, + the cinematography I’ll definitely make a post on when the DVD becomes available) and they were simply genius. Watch closely as people kill people.

All right, so I think I’ve mentioned everything I adored about this film. (Which was pretty much everything.) I did also love the plug for vegetarians, that was fun. Was I a minority in loving the crap out of Noah, or did you guys too? Or if you haven’t seen — are you excited?