The much promote movie Noah debuted last weekend to less than blockbuster levels ($44 million) given the amount of money spent to produce and promote it ($250 million). It is clear that director Darren Aronofsky's warped retelling of the Noah story is not going to attract the massive interest of the church going public that helped the last high profile religious movie, The Passion of Christ to make over $600 million from a cost of $30 million. He is missing out on an untapped market. Four to five times as many people attend church each week compared to how many people go to the movies each week.
This movie is just the latest example of the secular world view seeking to supplant the traditional religious world view in modern America. Religion has been forced out of schools. Religious values regarding the protection of unborn life has been overruled. The traditional definition of marriage is being redefined. And now the Bible is being revised to replace the Word of God with a message not found in the Bible.
Aronofsky makes the excuse that there is not enough source material in the Bible for a 2 1/2 hour movie, so he had to creatively filled in the blanks and created conflict that is needed to keep interest in a story. I get that. I've dabbled in screenwriting myself (Jihad on Hollywood), so I know the elements of an engaging story. However, Aronofsky totally changes the message of the Noah story to promote an agenda not found at all in the Bible.
Aronofsky's Noah is a vegan Jason killing machine (without the hockey mask). He believes that God wants to destroy man because of his mishandling of the environment. The evil depicted in the movie is murder and people eating meat. Only the animals will be saved and he will make sure that he and all his family will die off, even to the extreme of killing his own granddaughters to prevent the birth of more humans. Aronofsky couldn't change the story beyond this (or we wouldn't be here). His Noah eventually changes his mind and tells his descendants to multiply and replenish the earth.
What did Aronofsky get wrong?
* The Bible clearly states that Noah and his wife and his 3 sons and their wives boarded the ark. Aronofsky leaves out the wives because his Noah wants to end man's life on earth.
* The Bible clearly states that Noah brought 7 of the clean beasts and only 2 of the unclean beasts onto the ark. The extra beasts were obviously here for food and sacrifice to God. Noah was no vegan and his ancestors included herdsmen who also performed animal sacrifice to God.
* The Bible clearly states that Noah was a righteous man with a righteous family. He was not against all mankind, he was only against evil mankind. God was not mad at men for ruining the environment. He was mad at the evil choices they made. What evil choices did they make? Well according the Jesus in Matthew 24:37-38, the last days will be like the days of Noah. The evils of the people God destroyed with the flood are the same kind we see in society today.
Much like Noah, Bible reading families teach against the values they see in general society - promiscuity, pornography, violence against women and children, abortion, divorce. Not ever eating meat and going green are not that big a deal and are not on the short list of how to get to heaven.
Noah will not reach the potential high box office it could have reached because it is not a Biblical message that active Christians can support like The Passion of Christ. If anything, it is continued evidence that Hollywood is on a mission to tear down traditional religion and build up secularism by treating the Bible as just another fairytale.