Noah (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Black Swan)
	Actors: Russell Crowe (Gladiator), Jennifer Connelly (Requiem for a Dream), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs), Ray Winstone
	Country: USA
	Genre: Epic, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 14.02.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Last descendant of Seth, the third son of Adam, Noah (Crowe) has a vision that the end of the World is near and that he must help the innocents to survive.
Review: I was surprised to see that not many movies by Aronofsky are reviewed yet on this blog (except his first one: Pi) although I own them all in Blu-ray and liked them all (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan), but I didn't watch them in the last two and a half years. Again, the director shows us an original story, or rather in that case a classic story told in an original way. To avoid the obvious questions like "where did Cain's wife come from?", or "what do those people eat if not God's creations (animal or vegetal)", the story is cleverly transposed to someplace that looks not quite like Earth, in particular I love the design idea that we see stars in the daylight sky. The design of the fallen angels is also interesting, almost looking like stop-motion. So the place is different and the people inhabiting it seem alien, but the themes are the old universal ones: family, love, honor, belief, hope, good and evil. And like in The Lord of the Rings, the promises of Industry and Technology threatens to lead the world into darkness. How actual. The actors are good, and it seems like the role of Noah was written for Russel Crowe as I haven't seen him so good since Gladiator. I enjoyed the rising tension until the Deluge that occurs unexpectedly at half-movie. Then things really slow down, and focus is even more on Noah's beliefs and his kind of early religious fanaticism. All in all I liked Noah, but I would preferred a slightly different structure and message. I am almost tempted to read the book that inspired the movie.
Rating: 7 /10