Darren Aronofsky's Noah, starring Russell Crowe in the title character (few other actors have a sufficient ego for such a role), predictably caused controversy amongst the devout, despite the fact that the film contains very little to offend, regardless of your religious convictions. Despite feeling laboured and overlong in parts, if there's one thing it had it's Aronofsky's signature impressive visual style. Aronofsky envisions a primitive earth of huge open landscapes and depicts it with a camera which often swoops over vast panoramic environments. The use of CGI for the Nephilim and other now-extinct creatures might seem a little odd when they first appear on screen, but the detail in which they're rendered means that they fit unobtrusively into the setting. Biblical movies by their very nature are intended to feel epic, and while Noah isn't going to go down in history as a masterpiece, its grand set pieces are some of the most impressive seen in a movie so far this year.
