Flood of similarity

The videos above and below are trailers for a movie set in a primitive world about to face complete destruction, but one man is charged with saving it. It could be the plot of any number of fantasy stories. Many people believe this one is real.

The movie is “Noah” and tells the flood story from the Old Testament. Depending on how good it is, believers and non-believers alike may enjoy the movie, though for completely different reasons. But putting the religious aspect aside for a moment, I think it’s pretty indisputable that this movie looks like just another “end of the world” thing.

There are a number of well-known actors in the film, though it’s hard to tell from the trailer how good any of them are (Russell Crowe seems to be giving one of his, er, um, standard performances; as the centre of the story, he’s shown in the trailers more than the others).

I’m not a huge fan of the genre, for lack of a better word, of movies set in a primitive world about to face complete destruction with one man out to save it. The fact that some people believe the story is true doesn’t change anything for me: Since I don’t believe “the flood” ever happened, for me it’s just fantasy fiction of a type I don’t care for.

So, I don’t know what to make of the movie. If it’s well-made, it could be fun as any such movie can be, but for me, that’s all it could be. I wonder if believers—whether they believe this particular tale or not—get anything special from this sort of movie, because I don’t.

Actually, there may be problems with religious people. Some who saw the film at test screenings gave mixed reviews, and that raised alarms at the studio. That may be leading to changes, and so, religious folks might be okay with the final film.

When I was a kid, and a firm Christian, I used to love the Bible epic movies from the old days, and even the TV series “Jesus of Nazareth”. Now? Well, no. Since becoming an adult—even when I was still a Christian—I’ve never seen any religious dramatization that left me feeling anything at all. Emotive reinforcement of belief isn’t enough for me now—and good writing and good acting are necessary for me to enjoy ANY film.

I’ll be interested to see what the reaction to this movie is. I bet some non-believers will trash it, leading some believers get the sadz and declare they’re being oppressed—because that’s usually the way such things play out these days.

I certainly won’t be rushing to see the film, and may not at all. It just doesn’t float my boat (yeah, I HAD to go there…).