If what I have read in the reviews is accurate then there must be at least 10 different Noah movies out right now. I have read everything from the Noah movie is the worst movie ever made to it is the most brilliant and artistic movie in quite some time. I have heard it is profoundly theologically accurate and I have heard it is godless and corrupt. I have heard it is full of truth and I have heard it is mostly made up. I have heard it is midrash and I have heard it is heavily gnostic. Some think they wasted their money and others can’t wait to buy the Blu Ray
Is everyone watching the same movie? Of course…so why all the different conclusions? The answer has more to say about us than it does about the movie itself. The movie serves as a catalyst that quickly and easily brings to the surface our underlying biases, presuppositions and filters that have been there for years…movies like Noah just give us reason to expose what was already there.
Unrealistic expectations
I have a hard time watching horror movies because they are so ridiculously unrealistic. I am a pretty concrete person and have little creativity in me. When things are unrealistic I very easily check out. My problem is, I go into a movie that never promised to be realistic with the expectation that it will be and I get let down. Every time. Some of the incongruity in reactions to Noah has to do with expectation. Some went in thinking a movie about Noah would be about a guy named Noah in the Bible and they went away thinking it wasn’t that because they didn’t believe the story the saw was the same story they already knew. So the movie is garbage. They were let down and so, one must then conclude the movie has nothing to do with anything scriptural or theological, even if those things are actually embedded in the movie. This movie never promised to be 100% biblically accurate and it wasn’t made by a Christian or a Jew…so I am confused as to why people would get so upset if the movie didn’t deliver on promises it never made.
Faulty filters
A second reason for all the disparate (not to be confused with disparage…but the same could be said) reactions has to do with our filters. Our background influences our reactions. What you know or don’t know, how artsy or un-artsy you are, etc all has an impact on your preferences and where you do or do not find value and even “truth”. Some people found truth in the film because they believed the truth was presented artistically and with great liberty while others (those who had a hard time in elementary school art class) failed to find truth because the story didn’t line up perfectly with what we read in scripture. It is easier to find truth through a medium or application you value than through one you don’t because it is easier to reject things due to a dislike or misunderstanding of the medium and not because of what was actually being communicated.
These difference has as much or more to say about us as it does about the movie itself.
