Noah

The biblical story of Noah makes another appeal through the motion picture starring Russel Crowe. Being one of the most popular stories of the Old Testament, the story of Noah has been retold countless times. Growing up in a christian family especially in a church environment, it was manditory for me to learn about Noah's calling, especially about the motive that God had for the destruction of the world.

Perhaps the most popular version to this story is the one that's sugar-coated onto children's books. Although it is a good motive to break down the stories so that children would better digest and understand, it somehow makes us forget sometimes that the Old Testament portrays God's vengeful personality in which differs from the New Testament's portrayal of God's graceful personality.

Almost every story in the Old Testament displays God's wrath towards those who defied His authority.
As a result of disobedience, Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden after they were cursed with many problems and hardships that the human race has inherited even until today. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were burned into ashes because of their extensive committing of adultery. Pharaohs disobedience, brought forth the ten plagues that annihilated the nation of Egypt. And speaking of nation, the people of Israel experienced God's punishment several times, despite the fact that they are His chosen people. What was suppose to be a journey of a few days ended up being a wandering of 40 years before they reached Canaan. Israel was once divided, Saul was abandoned by God,  Achan was stoned. The list goes on and on, but these are just a few examples of God's judgment towards those who rebelled against Him.

The irony here is that the story of Noah which very much known by its colorful and friendly depiction in children's books, is perhaps the most horrifying story of the Old Testament. This is because God's anger was not only dispersed towards an individual, nor a nation, but this time it was upon every living creature!

Based on watching the movie trailer alone, my expectation towards this movie is very high. For the first time, the storyline in conjunction with the movie production will be the closest ever to the real terror that Noah and his family experienced. In addition, the structure of the Ark seen in the trailer seems more reasonable for Noah's era compared to the refurbished and modern-shaped vessels that were depicted on many versions of this story. I anticipate that this movie will be an ancient version of the global destruction and terror seen on the movie "2012".