Darren Aronofsky has been such a challenging, inventive filmmaker for so long that when I saw the trailers for "Noah," I cringed. It looked like every other formulaic summer blockbuster rather than a film from the guy who brought us sentient refrigerators in "Requiem for a Dream" and paranoia-induced doppelgangers in "Black Swan." Surely, I thought, Aronofsky must be up to something more than just a cash-your-paycheck biblical-disaster film, no?
Having seen it, the answer is yes and no. It's clearly "the Bible according to Peter Jackson," complete with epic battles, stone giants and magical fireballs. Aronofsky's filmmaking seems weighted down as he panders to modern action-fantasy filmmaking, yet buried within that are some bits worth pondering.
Russell Crowe plays the stern patriarch Noah, a descendant of Seth, who has divine visions of a coming disaster that will wipe out venal humanity. After drinking a shamanic brew given to him by his grandfather, Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins), Noah sees his destiny: With his wife Naameh (Jennifer Connelly) and sons Shem and Ham (Douglas Booth and Logan Lerman), he begins constructing the aircraft-carrier-sized wooden ark that will protect them and two of every species of animal and bird when the creator reboots the planet via a massive flood. The sinners aren't taking this lying down, and led by Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone) — an offspring of the murderous Cain — they plan to board Noah's Ark by force.