Review of NOAH by Rev. Dan Stanley March 31, 2014 at 9:13pm A few weeks ago, I did a review of the movie “Son of God” because conflicting internet reports about the movie threatened to sow some divisiveness in the church. Last weekend’s release of the movie “Noah” also is worth a quick review. In the case of “Noah” there have, again, been mixed reviews, but from what I’ve seen, the opinions in the online Christian community have been generally very negative. So let me once again start out with some caveats. (It should be noted that there are elements of the plot revealed below.) First of all, I want to once again warn people about taking what the read on the internet as unquestionable truth. Emails you get or posts on Facebook have no independent verification and seem to prey upon the gullible. Bloggers are little better with no independent verification to hold them accountable. Even this review should be seen as only my opinion. Hopefully if you know me personally, you’ve put some value in my opinion. But if you don’t know me, just take this opinion as one of a multitude of voices, gather as much firsthand information as you can, and decide for yourself. Another consideration is the “extra-biblical” elements of the “Noah” movie. What many people, even in the Christian community, don’t know is that the Genesis account is not the only ancient story of the days before the Flood. There are other ancient texts (including the book of Enoch), which describe the pre-flood society not to mention the folktales of a myriad of different cultures that have their own flood stories. I am not an expert in these stories (which are not Scripture nor should they be accepted as divinely inspired), and truthfully I’m not even all that familiar with them. But I do know that the writers of the movie borrowed from those stories as well as the Biblical account. The “Watchers” from the film (the odd stone creatures) are loosely based on the Watchers found in the book of Enoch. So some of the extra-biblical elements in the story are indeed extra-biblical, but I’ve heard that many of these elements still come from some ancient texts. When I was a kid, Marvel Comics used to publish “What If” stories. These were stories outside the official “canon” of the Marvel universe that pondered what would have happened or what might have happened (What if Spiderman had joined the Fantastic Four, What if Captain America had been elected president, etc.). It seems that the screen writers for the “Noah” movie asked a lot of “What if” questions when they wrote this film. What if the descendants of Cain were the dominant society on the earth and an industrial one at that? What if the “Watchers” helped Noah? What if Noah carried on Adam’s duty to care for creation as his sacred task? What if they found a way to put all the animals to sleep for the voyage? What if there were a stowaway on the ark? I don’t mind “What if” questions, even in a biblical story, so long as they are plausible. Some of the ideas in Noah were plausible, but many of them weren’t. One of the implausible elements of the movie “Noah” was Noah’s belief that God’s intention was to wipe out all mankind, including Noah’s family. It is even implied that God told Noah to kill his grandchildren so this could take place (although that is called into question later in the movie). This shows me that the writers did not understand one of the basic elements of the Noah story. It is not a story about the destruction of humanity. God didn’t want a pretty garden with gentle animals. The epitome of God’s creation was mankind. The story of Noah is about the REDEMPTION of mankind. That God would rescue a righteous family from the evil world and give them an opportunity to start over. The ark wasn’t for the animals. The ark was to carry on the ultimate story of redemption that would lead thousands of years later to the death of God’s Son on the cross. That redemptive idea is totally lost in this version of “Noah”. That being said, there are some things I really enjoyed about the film. The vision of the pre-deluvian world was very interesting. There were aspects that emphasized the holiness of God. The healing of Ila’s barrenness thrilled my heart as it showed a true act of grace. So in the end I can’t recommend “Noah” but neither do I think it is a dangerous thing that people should avoid. See it if you want and form your own opinion, but do your best to make sure that it is an informed opinion. And if there are those that hold a different opinion than you, treat them with grace and decide very carefully if this is an important enough matter to express your disagreement. God Bless, Pastor Dan Stanley Methuen, MA
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:05:21 +0000
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