However, in comparison with his own work, the film feels more tentative. Adapting the Word of God is daunting, for sure. Creating a world that audiences can believe in is hard too, especially when you introduce Fallen Angels who look like Transformers made of rock (his version of the Bible's Nephilim).
There is neither a zebra nor giraffe to be seen in
Noah
. Aronofsky's desire to avoid the cliches drives him to invent new versions of our animals, probably because he could.
Computer-generated animals are easier to wrangle than real ones. Their arrival on his ark, a great, square monolith of wood and pitch, is the film's biggest missed opportunity. The animals arrive unbidden, then Noah's wife, Naameh (Jennifer Connelly), puts them all to sleep with a wave of her special narcotic incense. That is because
Noah
isn't about the critters. It's a film about human reproduction and human folly. The animals just get in the way.
The Bible is very specific about the humans who went on board: Noah and his wife, three sons and three wives. The movie changes that, to ensure the survival of sin. The eldest boy, Shem (Douglas Booth), is sweet on Ila (Emma Watson), an orphan they rescued 10 years earlier. The youngest, Japheth (Leo McHugh Carroll), is too young to care, but the middle boy, Ham (Logan Lerman), has no one.
With the sky clouding over and ''King'' Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone) threatening to storm the ark with his hordes of meat-eating men (it's like the Titanic in reverse), Ham goes looking for a mate. More bad timing.
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Aronofsky has great ambition and talent, and
Noah
is better than most of what is out there in the big end of movie production. It has big ideas and big melodrama, and it is gorgeous to the eye. The Icelandic landscapes alone are breathtaking. Russell Crowe gives his best, which is better than most, but it still feels like a film that loses its way. Aronofsky is trying to please everyone, given that Noah is legend to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
However, it is not about religion. It is about dominion, whether we have the right to destroy the planet. If there is a bigger modern theme, I can't think of it. Falling short of greatness, the film falls back on warfare, spectacle and sermon. It is big, wet and portentous, but the rebirth of mankind should be more than that.