Why Many Evangelicals Don't Like the Movie Noah

I saw the movie Noah last night.  I was hoping it would be better than it was.  I read reviews about it having Watchers that helped Noah build the ark, and I got excited - thinking that this movie has done its homework.

When Jesus and his family lived in Galilee, they were taught from the Bible and other books which never made it into the Bible.  For example, the Bible book of Jude (Jude was the brother of Jesus) quotes from one of those books called the Book of Enoch.  When Jude quoted from Enoch, he quoted a passage that was near to (and in context with) chapters explaining Noah's world and a group of fallen angels called Watchers who were also known as the "sons of God" in Genesis 6.

Originally, God gave these Watchers the task of looking over the well-being of humanity; but they were self centered and came to earth because they lusted after women of this world.  On earth they taught people how to war and how to use make-up.  In other words, they were the ones who opened up the secrets and possibilities of progress to humanity.

While teaching the nations how to progress, they had sex with the women they lusted after; and these women gave birth to giants (called Nephalim who created an enormous amount of violence, death and destruction in the world). For doing this, God doomed the Watchers to eternal destruction. 

In the book of Enoch, Noah was called to put an end to the destruction by building an ark and you know the rest of that story.

So when I heard there were Watchers in the movie Noah, I was thinking, this is going to be awesome!  I was hoping that this movie would flesh out these Watchers and Nephalim as the book of Enoch viewed them.  But there were no Nephalim in the movie and the Watchers were like a bunch of Transformers who turned into rocks.  I was disappointed.

I like movies that are creative, that make me think, and that are entertaining. The movie Noah was somewhat creative, but most of the awesome special effects were in the trailer.  The movie did make me think about a few things: such as the possibility of Noah getting drunk to escape haunting memories of a world and the people he left behind that perished; and I realized that maybe Watchers were more concerned about the well-being of humanity than I had previously thought.

Many films about Jesus and about Bible characters are boring and lifeless.  The characters in many Bible movies have little or no personality.  I think movie makers are afraid to give them personalities for fear of putting something into the characters that is not in the Bible.  The Noah movie gives the characters good sized personalities... personalities that I didn't always like. As a character, Noah  was okay for awhile, but in time he became an environmental and animal rights fanatic for God.

I don't know if the movie was trying to turn us against environmentalists or conservatives.  While Noah tells us the importance of protecting and taking care of the environment, and the evil man Tubal-Cain talks like a conservative who wants to take control of creation (as Genesis 1 commands), In the end, Noah becomes the fanatical environmentalist who feels that it is his duty to kill humanity to protect the rest of creation.

People who make a big deal about God's name not being mentioned in the movie should lighten up.  Over and over again God was called the Creator and I liked that, and actually preferred that.  The name of God in and among the Jews is sacred and not to be mentioned.  Besides, Seth did say that the Creator was God in one scene.

What happens to the Watchers in the movie was awesome, and very touching; but I won't give that away.  The overall message was okay but not all that enlightening or powerful - that mercy, love, and compassion should be our rule rather than violence.

BIBLE THEMES OUTSIDE OF THE STORY OF NOAH

Look for these themes:
1. The barren woman miraculously conceives and gives birth (think of Sarah, Samuel's and John the Baptist's mothers).
2. The child is offered and then spared as a sacrifice to God (think Abraham and Isaac).
3. Justice and mercy are the core values to religion.
4. Ham is tempted by a tempter just like Adam and Eve, and acts out with the results that look a lot like Cain.
5. Genesis chapter one - "Dominate creation and control it" vs. Genesis 2 - "Take care of the garden," upgraded to "take care of the earth" after the fall.

WHY THE MOVIE'S NOAH WAS SUCH A JERK

When I watched the movie, I was taken back with Noah's extreme dedication to the notion that God wanted to destroy any possibility of humanity's future.  As I understand it, the idea comes from the belief in some Jewish circles that by being so obedient to the Creator, he was at fault.  On the surface, this looks close to blasphemy, but at closer look, there is something to this.

The Lord told Abraham that he was going to destroy a wicked city and Abraham would not accept it, but rather argued with the Lord until he (Abraham) was convinced that he had saved the city.  Of course, we know that he was wrong in that assumption.  Moses refused to accept God's plan and will to destroy the people of Israel in the desert and argued with God until God backed off from his plans.  Three times, God told Jeremiah to stop praying for the people of Judah.  The fact that God had to tell him three times implies that Jeremiah was outright disobeying God by continuing in prayer.

The prophets of Israel and Judah were called to take the side of the people against the Creator.  They were the lawyers for the people - the same people that God took to court wanting to destroy, but Noah was a bad lawyer and said nothing to protect his client.  As a lawyer for the people, he failed.  He did not plead for the people, but silently obeyed God, leaving the people to their punishment.  The movie Noah builds on Noah's blind obedience and pushes it to an uncomfortable extreme.

Generally speaking, Evangelicals believe very strongly in obeying God no matter what and wrestling with God is foreign to many of them.  Israel's heroes often argued and wrestled with God.  Maybe, as Evangelical Christians, we should look more into this.

Also, generally speaking, Evangelicals hold Bible characters as heroes of the faith and above reproach.  It is difficult for many of them to see their Bible heroes as human beings who had faults (This is true for cultural, religious and historical heroes outside of the Bible as well).   Nevertheless, others believe that God used people with a lot of faults.  The movie Noah shows what the producer / writer believed Noah to be - an obedient servant to God who took obedience to an extreme and was not willing to argue on behalf of the people.