Monday, March 31, 2014

NOAH: A FOLLOW-UP

If you read my reviews over at Aleteia, such as the latest one for Noah, then you know they are often lite on the theological discussions I attempt (successfully or otherwise) to put into my reviews here. That’s very much on purpose as my editors have asked for a specific type of article from me as part of their evangelistic efforts. That’s fine as I’m more than happy to do whatever I can to help the cause.

Still, an occasional film shows up that I feel deserves a little more in-depth analysis. Such was the case with Noah, and I was seriously considering writing a longer piece on the film for this blog after the Aleteia review had run its course. But now, thanks to Darwin Catholic, I don’t have to. In his review of the movie, Mr. Darwin says most of what I wanted to. For instance…

“One of the key problems with the movie, in the end, is that it builds up Noah as such a dangerous fanatic that I personally was rooting for him to die in order to protect humanity from him, yet although Noah does at the last relent in a key way -- due to a moment of humanity which he nonetheless sees as a failure of nerve -- the movie fails to either mete out justice to him or show a sufficient conversion of character to seem dramatically satisfying. The story of Noah has been changed from one in which God deals out justice to humanity through clear (if dark) instructions, to one in which humanity, in the person of one ultimately powerful and relentless man, must decide for itself what is right and what is wrong. And never even quite does that clearly.”

And there’s a lot more of that kind of thoughtful analysis throughout the review. What I particularly like is that Darwin neither heaps scorn on the film as some have, nor does he lavish it with hyperbolic praise as have others. The movie deserves neither. Instead, he finds plenty to like in it, but ultimately concludes that it fails in its intentions. In other words, he agrees with me!

So be sure to head on over to Darwin Catholic and check out what I would have come close to writing about Noah here. My thanks to Darwin for the excellent review and for saving me some time.

6 comments:

Cari said...

Ugh. But we like yoooooooooour reviews. Fine. I'll go read Darwin Catholic's review, though I have to admit- not even all the blogchatter has roused enough interest in me to actually go see the movie.

EegahInc said...

This movie is driving people nuts for some reason. Sr. Helena Burns came out of the theater last night and tweeted that it was the greatest biblical movie ever made, while John C. Wright walked out a day ago and declared on his blog that no Christian man in his right mind should go see it. Well... no.

So, given all that, when I found Darwin had written one of the more rational reviews out there, I wanted to pass it along, especially since I felt like my own review fell a little short in the spiritual analysis. Like I said the other day, though, don't loose any sleep if you wait until this shows up on SyFy. I'm sure they'll run it as a double feature with Monster Ark.

Rocket Scientist said...

"But we like yoooooooooour reviews. Fine." So true. However I quite liked your review for Aleteia. This one did a nice job in closing though, and fits with my impression so far of the movie. And I'm sorry to sheepishly admit, I liked Monster Ark. Don't judge me. BTW, how do you pronounce Aleteia?

EegahInc said...

"I liked Monster Ark. Don't judge me."

Well, I'm the one who who brought up Monster Ark in the first place, so I'm in no position to cast stones.

"BTW, how do you pronounce Aleteia?"

Al-ah-tay-uh (I think)

Rocket Scientist said...

So when can we expect a review of Monster Ark?

EegahInc said...

I guess I do need to put up some more reviews here, don't I, since this basically started as a movie review blog. I suppose this place is becoming like M-TV, the music television channel with no music.