Sunday, March 30, 2014

Noah - Classic case of The book is better than the Movie

Okay so I went along with the herd of people that attended the early showings on Friday afternoon.

The advertisement and early Catholic Blogs encouraged a feeling of optimism and "don't judge until you've seen it" lecture.

The articles warned to have an open mind and allow for the director to has some artistic freedom and the christian blogosphere  cheered the rise of the Christian based movies. And there are more than a few out there, "Son of God" which I saw,  "God is Not Dead" which I plan to see, along with Noah.

One article argued that Noah could make or break the popularizing of the the Christian movie genre. If it bombs then that could signal a lose of Christian interest in Hollywood generated bible based movies.

So off to the showing the wife and I went with high hopes and expectations...an open mind if you please.

Having seen the Son of God movie, while this movie was what I expected, it was lacking something. I can't put my finger on it, maybe it was the feeling that I had seen it on the TV series already. And well the "see through holes in the hands" didn't do it for me as far as special affects. The message was there but it's presentation just didn't have the power of a full Hollywood production.

I haven't see the "God is Not Dead" movie yet but the reviews I have read go along with the Son of God movie. I will still go see it.

My experience with Mel Gibson's "Passion" was amazing, the mood of the audience; their silence as they exited at the end of the movie was as if they were in shock. there was dead silence.The message was there and the Hollywood pizazz combined to make the powerful impact that the movie still has today.

Everyone should differentially see it again for this Lent.

Noah, I was hoping would be a presentation of this epic.

It didn't get off on a good footing right from the start. The picking of a flower by Noah's young son offered a retribution and lecture that he (the son) shouldn't take more from the earth than "we" need.

Really? A flower?

Okay, cool it I told myself, It's just starting...

So we see the family of Noah fleeing meat eating scavengers, passing earth ravaged "mining areas". Again with the environmental theme, or was I again being too critical?

As the movie progresses into the Ark building we meet the descendant of Cain, so called ruler of the earth at that time. We see his people savagely killing and cutting up animals for consumption. Noah's family are not meat eaters but vegetarians.

The 'Watchers' (fallen Angles) are helping with the building of the Ark because they see that Noah is trying to follow God's calling to build the Ark. They sort of look like rock Transformers.

After awhile all these points are just piling up:

* Environmentalist themes throughout the movie
* Meat eating bad!
* Fallen Angles Repent and are Redeemed. (this is just incorrect theology)
* Noah wants to kill his own family members
* Noah says the the surviving family are saved just to die out when they find land. People are bad for the environment. So why did God save them in the first place?
* Shem is the only one with a wife even though the Bible says differently. All the boys had wives.

Okay so I promised to be open minded and I ended up creating a list of only a few of the items in the movie I tried to ignore...but I can't

If a movie is going to hang it's hat on being a Christian movie then it has some basic guidelines to follow. If it's a biblical story at least try to follow the scripture. I know that other popular movies (The Ten Commandents, The Robe, Ben Hur) have their flaw as well but this one just kept the list growing, till finally I have to say...

....this is not a good movie as far as it's claims to being a Christina movie.

There are those that say "It's a movie for entertainment and shouldn't be judge beyond that"

Foowy!

Again if you claim to be of the Christian movie genre, you need to be true to the that message.

The over all message of the scripture is not in the movie.My biggest fear is that many who watch this movie will come away with thinking that this movie's (Noah) message and theology is Christian

...and it isn't.

I like the acting, I like the Hollywood affects but...

Either today's Christian movies are right on with the message but fail to capture the audience or they capture the audience but fail in truthfully bringing the Christian message to the screen.

The Christian audience, who is the target of this movie venture will be the target audience of ridicule because they point this out.

If you see the movie fine, just do yourself the favor of at least reading the scripture account first.

This is a classic case of the book being better than the movie.