# Noah - anyone else see it? (spoilers)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 6, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460 "2014-07-06T03:21:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/1 "2014-07-06T03:21:16Z")
I can’t find the main discussion thread for this movie if there was one. I only found one about the commercials and another one about the recent Bible movies.
Anyway, did anyone else see the movie? I did and I actually thought it was pretty good. I was surprised that Noah is pretty much an antagonist for a big part of the movie and the appearance of Watchers surprised me as well.
I thought it was a bit silly that one of the non-Noah-family people got on board, but it played out all right.
What did you all think? I thought Emma Watson pretty much stole the movie. She was great and I was very impressed with her acting.
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/2 "2014-07-06T05:10:04Z")
Yeah, it was pretty good and I too was surprised to find that Noah was both protagonist and antagonist throughout the film.
Were the “watchers” based upon the Bible? Don’t recall the ark being built by big stone creatures, but it’s been a while since I’ve read the source material…
---
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2014, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/3 "2014-07-06T05:22:50Z")
Nope, in the sixth chapter of Genesis God tells Noah to build the ark, and give directions on how big to make it, what kind of wood to use, and so on.
_Noah!_
Who is that?
_It’s the Lord, Noah!_
Right! What do you want, I been good!
_I want you to build an ark._
Right, who is this **really**?
---
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/4 "2014-07-07T01:01:22Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> Were the “watchers” based upon the Bible? Don’t recall the ark being built by big stone creatures, but it’s been a while since I’ve read the source material…
They did not help make the ark. I believe it took 50-75 years to make the ark.
I think the Watchers were the [Nephillim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephilim), but their storyline was added.
---
### Author:  [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/5 "2014-07-07T01:42:11Z")
Saw it, enjoyed it.
Thought the Watchers were somewhat silly. Thanks **Mahaloth** for the link to the nephilim - finally the Watchers make some sort of sense.
REALLY liked Russell Crowe’s portrayal of a good man going on a good mission, to becoming a crazed fundie, and back to a good man again.
I did think the whole “save the environment” theme was a bit heavy-handed.
---
### Author:  [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/6 "2014-07-07T14:30:37Z")
The fallen angels are called Watchers in the deuterocanonical book of Enoch, and in some other places. They’re generally not good guys.
---
### Author:  [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/7 "2014-07-07T18:59:19Z")
> [@Baker](#):
>
> _Noah!_
> Who is that?
> _It’s the Lord, Noah!_
> Right! What do you want, I been good!
> _I want you to build an ark._
> Right, who is this **really**?
Classic! Thanks Bill Cosby. But, you forgot the all important “Ping!”
---
### Author:  [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/8 "2014-07-07T19:14:25Z")
There’s some pretty good analysis that the film wasn’t based on Genesis, but rather [on the Kabbalah](http://drbrianmattson.com/journal/2014/3/31/sympathy-for-the-devil).
---
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/9 "2014-07-07T19:15:04Z")
> [@Learjeff](#):
>
> Classic! Thanks Bill Cosby. But, you forgot the all important “Ping!”
I actually played Bill Cosby’s Noah for my Sunday School class. They thought it was great.
---
### Author:  [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/10 "2014-07-07T19:22:28Z")
> [@emarkp](#):
>
> There’s some pretty good analysis that the film wasn’t based on Genesis, but rather [on the Kabbalah](http://drbrianmattson.com/journal/2014/3/31/sympathy-for-the-devil).
FWIW, there are some pretty good takedowns of that POV, such as:
> **[No, Noah Is Not Gnostic. (Say That Ten Times Fast!)](https://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2014/04/no-noah-is-not-gnostic-say-that-ten-times-fast.html)**
>
> Is Darren Aronofsky's film influenced by Jewish mysticism? Certainly. But does it reflect a Gnostic subversion of Judeo-Christian belief? Does it suggest that God is Satan and vice versa? Uh, not so much.
---
### Author:  [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/11 "2014-07-07T19:25:07Z")
Anyways, this was my opinion of the movie in the previous thread:
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17291265&postcount=89](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17291265&postcount=89)
---
### Author:  [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/12 "2014-07-07T20:17:59Z")
> [@ISiddiqui](#):
>
> FWIW, there are some pretty good takedowns of that POV, such as:
>
> [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2014/04/no-noah-is-not-gnostic-say-that-ten-times-fast.html](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2014/04/no-noah-is-not-gnostic-say-that-ten-times-fast.html)
uhhh
> [@](#):
>
> So, there may be elements of the Kabbalistic tradition in Noah, sure.
>
> These may include the fact that Adam and Eve are presented as luminescent beings before the Fall, or the fact that the fallen angels depicted here are redeemed in the end, or the fact that the film divides the human race into the evil descendants of Cain and the better descendants of… one of Adam and Eve’s other sons.
>
> But there is nothing particularly sinister about any of these claims.
Chattaway is slicing Gnosticism and Kabbalah differently than Mattson, but is hardly refuting the idea.
I haven’t seen the movie, but in reading the discussion on both sides, I find little material overlapping with the biblical account–basic names, there was an ark and a flood, etc. No mention of Noah’s years of preaching repentance, rather trying to KILL ALL HUMANZ! etc.
---
### Author:  [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/13 "2014-07-07T23:18:40Z")
Saw it, thought it was dreadful. Mainly in the production values. So cheap and third-rate. Everything looked totally fake. And I only went for the special effects. The story was interminable. Ugh.
I’m not trying to threadshit, the discussion is interesting. I’m very pleased you all saw a much better movie than me. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/14 "2014-07-08T01:51:41Z")
> [@emarkp](#):
>
> No mention of Noah’s years of preaching repentance, rather trying to KILL ALL HUMANZ! etc.
Did Noah preach repentance in the Bible? In any version of the story?
---
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2014, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/15 "2014-07-08T06:41:08Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> I thought it was a bit silly that one of the non-Noah-family people got on board, but it played out all right.
The real problem is that not enough people wound up on board. There were 8 people explicitly stated to be on board.
Then again, Noah was also explicitly stated to be both righteous and blameless, so the text wasn’t much of a consideration.
---
### Author:  [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/16 "2014-07-08T17:53:36Z")
> [@emarkp](#):
>
> Chattaway is slicing Gnosticism and Kabbalah differently than Mattson, but is hardly refuting the idea.
Did you read the rest of it? 😉
Basically some of what is claimed to be “Kabbalah” is Biblical:
> [@](#):
>
> He also doesn’t address the fact that many of the Kabbalistic elements he finds so sinister have their counterparts in Christian thought, especially perhaps in the Eastern churches. (Full disclosure: I’m an Eastern Orthodox communicant myself.)
In addition, there is this weird conflation of Kabbalah and Gnosticism by Mattson (calling it Jewish Gnosticism ignores what Gnosticism really is - Scholem may have deemed it such, but that has been mostly rejected). Though Mattson says he distinguished it, he slides from one back to the other very easily.
Also:
> [@](#):
>
> This difference between Gnosticism and Kabbalah is especially clear if we look at what Aronofsky has done with the movie Noah. Instead of condemning the created world as an illusion imposed on us by an evil Creator, Aronofsky’s film celebrates the created world and, through its protagonist, suggests that the animals are “innocent” in a way that humans are not. Indeed, many conservatives have complained that the film loves the rest of the created world so much that it is fundamentally “anti-human”.
>
> Put simply: Gnosticism hates Creation. Aronofsky’s Noah loves Creation. So whatever else you might say about Aronofsky’s film, it is not Gnostic.
Also, let’s be somewhat clear. Mattson is a conservative evangelical. If you look at his other journal posts, you’ll see anti-liberalism posts, anti-secularism posts, etc. Conservatives were somewhat upset at Aronofsky for going “off book” and adding things to Noah (it’s like 4 chapters in the Bible - if you didn’t add things, it’d be a half hour tale). Perhaps we should give Mattson the benefit of the doubt, but it seems to me, he’s trying to bring down the movie because it departs from the Biblical narrative exactly.
---
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/17 "2014-07-15T01:00:59Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Did Noah preach repentance in the Bible? In any version of the story?
Slight bump to repeat my question.
---
### Author:  [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/18 "2014-09-21T19:59:26Z")
I rented it , and turned it off about two thirds of the movie, found it too preachy. The scene with the watchers reminded me of the white tower battle in Lotr and from there I found the movie dragging
---
### Author:  [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/19 "2014-09-22T03:37:31Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> I can’t find the main discussion thread for this movie if there was one. I only found one about the commercials and another one about the recent Bible movies.
>
> Anyway, did anyone else see the movie? I did and I actually thought it was pretty good. I was surprised that Noah is pretty much an antagonist for a big part of the movie and the appearance of Watchers surprised me as well.
>
> I thought it was a bit silly that one of the non-Noah-family people got on board, but it played out all right.
>
> What did you all think? I thought Emma Watson pretty much stole the movie. She was great and I was very impressed with her acting.
The Watchers kept making me think of Transformers, but otherwise I really liked the movie, found it entertaining, and am amused by the critics who say it’s “too Biblical” or “not Biblical enough.”
---
### Author:  [@NiceGuyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NiceGuyJack)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2014, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/noah-anyone-else-see-it-spoilers/692460/20 "2014-10-21T17:14:39Z")
I’m 35 minutes into the movie and I am ready to turn it of. Do people really believe in this?
I mean, it’s not even good as fiction, which is why I decided to watch it. I thought maybe, it could be an entertaining fiction, but wow. I’m exhausted already. I don’t think I can handle two hours of this.
What was Russell Crowe thinking signing up for this crap. And how did it ever get a 6.0 IMDb rating?
Don’t get it, but then I am an atheist. I guess you have to have faith to find this entertaining.