A review of the movie NOAH

I went to see the movies to see NOAH today. I know a lot of churches and Christians are ripping it apart for not being a strict presentation of the Bible (sort of like DeMille's Ten Commandments and other biblical films from Hollywood) - but I liked it. I'll get to my primary reasons for liking it later, but first, the secondary reasons: I liked the creativity. The visual interpretation of Noah retelling the first chapter of Genesis creation account was cool. The visibility of the stars and their closeness implies a young universe early in its post-big bang expansion. I'm glad to see Noah wore something more like blue jeans than a bath robe. And the way the movie takes a one liner in the Bible and builds a whole back story about the Nephilim that reflects some research into some old traditions and a familiarity with Hebrew -- although I will say throughout the movie I thought the Nephilim looked like rusty Transformers.

Now to my primary reasons for liking the movie: I liked it because of the way it handled some of the great themes of the biblical theology of Noah. Here you have a story about God's demand for justice AND God's demand for mercy. How these two conflicting ideals interact in human life and history is a story worth telling, and I think this movie got this right. Noah and his wife have a tough time working through those two concepts.

John Calvin, Martin Luther and St. Paul would have liked this part - Noah has an epiphany when he realizes that he and his family are as sinful as anyone else facing destruction. He struggles with how justice requires that they should also die.

Noah has a hard time understanding what God wants him to do. He sometimes gets it wrong - the movie demonstrations this by adding to Noah a little of the Abraham and Isaac near-sacrifice story. Understanding God is often tough.

Most of all, I liked the ending. The story of Noah's drunkenness is perhaps the most accurately portrayed element of the biblical account in this movie. This is a confusing part of the Bible's account, and in the movie it is clearly a survivor's remorse that Noah is experiencing. The reconciliation of Noah and his wife immediately after that is a touching moment in the film. Noah does everything God asks of him, and he finds it to be a painful and difficult journey, with no pie-in-the sky happy ending - and that's real life and sound theology. Serving God ain't easy - and that's the truth.