Christians like to try to find good movies that can get out a decent message about a biblical theme. We don't find them very often and even more rarely agree that they are "a decent message about a biblical theme." Too often we evaluate before having seen them because, after all, we would like to spare our brothers and sisters a bad movie if we can.
Enter Noah, a new movie coming out shortly that is supposed to give us just such a decent message about a biblical theme. Now, obviously I haven't seen it (because it doesn't come out until the end of this week), but I thought I'd point out a helpful review from someone who has and who doesn't have a Christian axe to grind. That is, the review won't be tainted by your favorite Christian bent. This is a review from a secular source.
Todd McCarthy offers his persepctive on "Darren Aronofsky's Bible-based epic." Now, come on! Doesn't "Bible-based epic" sound good? He points out that the story of Noah is embraced by most of the world's major religions, something that strikes me as interesting in itself. But he also admits that all "will find plenty to fulminate about here." That's a little ominous.
The movie, as expected, has "numerous dramatic fabrications". Well, of course it would. I don't think you can make a biblical movie without them. But the message that keeps getting repeated over and over again is that it is full of "heavy-handed ecological doomsday messages." In fact, his "Bottom Line" review says, "Before Paul Ehrlich and Al Gore, there was Noah." And immediately the "Bible-based epic" begins to slip from any biblical basis.
The story removes God from Genesis 1:1 and replaces Him with "In the beginning there was nothing." Noah doesn't get instructions from God but from hallucinations. And this particular "God" is fallible, realizing He made a mistake in making Man and has to do a "do-over". So God will destroy the world because "It's men who broke the world."
Well, what do you expect? Noah creates a problem between Ham and his father because Ham fears he would never know a woman because in this version only one of the three sons had a wife even though the Bible clearly states "Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark" (Gen 7:13). God is deleted. The theme is not sin, but ecological judgment. It's just the kind of thing you would expect from Hollywood.
I'm not complaining, mind you. I'm just suggesting that you don't anticipate an opportunity to share the Gospel with friends over this one. If you're interested in entertainment, it's certainly your call whether or not this will entertain you. I'm just suggesting that you don't look for a decent message about a biblical theme here because you just won't likely find it.
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