Everyone saying: “The Noah movie is crap.”
So I want to ask a question: Is the movie bad, the adaptation bad, or do you not like the story?
Because I found the adaptation pretty faithful. It has ALL the key points of the story from the original book. Let’s take a look? We’re in Genesis 6…
1~3 Humans multiply like rabbits, the earth got super crowded, God decides to limit man’s age to 120 years;
4 One of the complex texts of the Bible that can be explained with a thousand theories, but there is no absolute truth. There were GIANTS in the earth, and they are called “sons of God,” making it clear that they were different from humans.
5~7 God is disappointed with man, who only thinks of evil from the moment he wakes up until he goes to bed, and decides to end it all. However, He likes what He sees in Noah.
9~22 God reveals His plan to Noah, and orders the ark. The original text says nothing about how God spoke to Noah. It could have been a dream, mushroom tea, a loud voice, or even through a shaman, who knows.
Chapter 7 and 8 And here lies the controversy. The biblical story, in summary, is that Noah built the ark, entered with his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law, and waited 7 days for it to start raining. Everyone stays inside another 150 days while it rains… and then they continue inside until the ark “runs aground” on the mountains of Ararat. Even after that, they have to wait a few more months for the water to recede.
So I take this chance to ask you: how would you do this adaptation for the cinema? Would it be like a Big Brother? Would Noah appear playing backgammon, then cleaning cow dung… then a fight between the two daughters-in-law to see who had preference in the laundry…?!? Who would watch this happily, clapping?
The author’s freedom allowed for the creation of what every movie needs: Crises, family tensions, an evil villain, and so on…
In the continuation, you see the rainbow, which symbolizes God’s covenant with man, and the hope that Noah’s family will rebuild humanity (which we already know didn’t go so well).
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Deep down, I think the movie sends a strong message: The crisis of a man, who recognizes he is no better than his neighbors, recognizing that evil dwelt within him and his family too.
Noah’s crisis is my crisis. I am bad, I am evil. My parents were sinners, I am a sinner, and my children will be too. There is no hope for me, there is no goodness, and no difference between me and my neighbor.
My humanity is full of monsters that torment me and make me recognize how evil I am when I look at myself in the mirror.
My hope is that I believe Jesus died for me so that I could be born again, and in the future become like Him. Not because I deserve it, but out of total mercy from a God who, although He tried twice to build the humanity He dreamed of, did not give up on us, but loved us so much that He sent His son, so that no one needs to be condemned; so that everyone, believing in Him, may have full and eternal life.
God did not go to the trouble of sending His son just to be able to point an accusing finger and tell humanity how evil it is. He came to help, to put the world back on track. Whoever trusts in Him will be acquitted. (John 3:16~18)
This is my hope.