No, I haven't read the Torah, that sounds fascinating. I only know the christian side of things, and then barely. I'm not unwilling to be informed. Though I don't think it is unreasonable to read the movie from that angle. I feel it would be rather unreasonable, in fact a huge miscalculation, to expect people to read the movie with anything other than a cursory knowledge of the material. But I guess that could also be argued.

The 'Burbs was childhood darling for me, I hear it's not very good, but would love an excuse to revisit it!

This is visionary directing. Holy shit. The first act is amazing, the creation montage sublime, the imagery throughout stupendous. The stars, the stars!!!

An incredible achievement.

Totally undermined by the movie’s obvious admission of God’s existence and/or God’s inability/unwillingness to communicate. It all went south to me when the birds came flying. What a disaster. Aronofsky’s thing seems to be environmentalism, but his whole message is cluttered up by God’s B-plot.

So, what is this movie trying to say?

It seems to be saying that Noah is God’s chosen one and that we are to sympathise with Noah’s, and thereby God’s, cause. But how can we sympathise with that cause when God is either so thoroughly stupid, or such a jerk, as to not clearly explain his plan to Noah?

It’s not a cautionary tale for what can happen when wrongly interpreting an order because the order is so obviously obscure to everybody watching that it should be unreasonable to everybody to expect anyone to perfectly understand it.

It’s not a cautionary tale for what can happen through bad leadership, cause the movie seems to want us rooting for God through Hermione’s speech at the end.

It does not want us to think God does not exist in the movie’s universe, because it is obvious that he does.

It does not want us to think God is a jerk and that we should hate him, cause again see Hermione’s speech.

So the conclusion is that God exists and is stupid, but that we should love him anyway? What kind of message is that?

Or maybe we are supposed to think Hermione, and possibly Noah and everybody else, but God, is stupid? Noah seems to be quite smart, so that really falls apart. And, how are we as the audience supposed to relate to idiots, and in fact relate to being framed as idiots? Again, what kind of message is that? Ok, framing the audience as idiots can of course be a device, but I really don’t think the movie is trying to go there, I feel the tone and epilogue suggests otherwise.

Or maybe we are to believe that God, while mighty, is not almighty, and needs a little bit of help. But nothing in the movie remotely corroborates this other than possibly the wanting storytelling, and that would be a seriously daft idea.

Or is the point to say that this story is a stupid story? The tone of the movie certainly does not suggest that. Quite the opposite, it seems to want us to take it very seriously.

It may play as Sauron’s end of the tale, but in no way do I believe that was Aronofsky’s point. If it was he has totally failed in conveying that. Nothing in the movie remotely suggests this and it should be obvious that most people would not read it as that, and as he seems very eager to get a message across and being widely regarded as a rather blunt storyteller, I can’t believe it.

I feel he should have changed it a little bit more, like removing the obvious existence of God, or having God speak directly to Noah, and have Noah knowingly and clearly defy God’s word. I feel that would have made the movie way more interesting, as it stands now I feel the whole point of the movie is moot, or rather, that it is pointless.

I didn’t know anything about the movie before I saw it, only that it was based on the Noah story, and more importantly, the stone giants, so that wasn’t a surprise to me, though it would have been a welcome one, I love the giants. I wonder if that surprise change makes a big or small difference in how one feels about the movie.

Overall, in the end I lean towards Teague’s sentiment I guess (or do I?), though the stars in the daytime sky are awesome.

So to me a failure, a spectacularly beautiful and visionary failure, but ultimately a failure.

Infuriating, it’s so incredibly brilliant! So close.

But maybe I’m missing something, that is quite possible, I get easily confused.

This movie is a treasure! Fantastic! Why have I never heard of this movie until now?

The image of Addie on the bed smoking should be one of the most iconic shots in cinema history.

It’s not so much that she doesn’t want to be in space, but that she doesn’t want to be, period. After the death of her daughter she has lost the will to live, her existence is meaningless and she is drifting from the world. Her spirit is floating into darkness, like her body is floating into the void. The physical reality of the movie is a literal representation of her psyche, and the entire movie is a representation of spiritual death and rebirth. Matthew’s actual death is the moment of her spiritual death, total disconnection from the rest of the living. “The shot” is the beginning of a new life, the incubation of the seed – hope, planted in her by Matthew, the lesson from the “father”. The fire in the ship is her soul reforged in the primordial darkness, and of course the ascent from water her being reborn. It is raw hero’s journey, as bare bones as you can get. The juxtaposition between the pure representation of such a poetic notion as the hero’s journey and the very harsh scientific realities of the movie is striking, there’s a chiaroscuro effect at work not only in the glorious visuals but also in concept. It is starkly elemental, primal, in both form and idea. Light - dark. Life - death. Fire - water. Space - ground. Nature - technology. Man - woman. Be - not be. And ultimately – be. Full circle. !

Not what I expected, and was fascinated to discover while writing this out.

As awesome as it is, the movie has some flaws. Stuff you guys pointed out, as-you-knows, Clooneyisms, but the major one for me being a product of its circumstances – it’s really just a lot of shit happening, very little motivation. Also, I don’t think her arc is that effectively portrayed, some beats are lacking. And why does Matthew insist on having a conversation with her when her oxygen is getting critically low? Stood out to me.

Technically it is amazing, and the visuals and music is absolutely gorgeous. And “the shot”, it may be precious, but I just had to exclaim “fuck you!”, you fantastic bastard, he owned it, and it certainly owns. Cuaron is one of my favourite directors as well, a master of the sensual, and in the end it is a movie about moments, emotion, and ideas. About being.

I saw it in 2D on a computer screen, unfortunately, but even then it truly is something. I can only imagine the impact of the full 3D cinema experience. Oh, well, maybe a special screening will come up in the future. One can hope.

Yeah, this is fantastic. A week feels like forever.

There’s nothing to say that what we see isn’t embellished for us as viewers and just a direct representation of what they are telling the cops. I mean, it may seem longwinded to us watching every moment, but a lot of that may translate, in their telling, as a few offhand comments to their interrogators. The magic of cinema!

Though I think Rob’s take is quite satisfying.

I love this show, nothing on TV has ever enticed me like this, far from it. It’s like an eight hour long Seven, the production is astounding.

Also, I’m tickled pink by the literary references (obtuse to be spoilerfree) in ep 2 and 4, I’m excited to see where they are going with that, though I would be truly surprised if they “went there”.