Noah

Noah, considering the rather short story it is based on, is long, bum-achingly long.

Darren Aronofsky takes his fascination with delving into the human psyche to new depths as he investigates just what goes through a man's mind when tasked with standing by as the entire human race is destroyed.

It has more in common stylistically with Aronofsky's most bizarre movie: The Fountain than it does with his most famous: Black Swan and, strangely enough, has a similar feel and colour palette to the latest Superman film: Man Of Steel, which also stars Russell Crowe, of course.

The problem with this, like MoS, is the general lack of light hearted-ness. Now, I'm all for moody films but they need balance; it's why Nolan's Batmans are better than MoS and also why Noah seems like such a chore to sit through.

Sure, there are some tasty CGI shots and the post-apocalyptic feel and sci-fi elements give the story a new twist but not a lot really happens in such a massive length of time.

Russell Crowe goes from flower-saver to baby killer and back again rather well (although why he gets his arse out at the end is completely unexplainable!) and his supporting cast are all excellent, but this just feels as harsh and un-user friendly as the Old Testament itself.

The best bit is the visualisation of the creation story that Noah tells (although it does start by replicating an old Guiness advert) but it's probably the only part of the film with any use of colour in it.

As such, it's impressive and certainly another notch on Aronofsky's burgeoning reputation, but just not watchable enough.

3 stars ***