BreatheCast was able to catch a pre-screening of the "Noah" movie in New York City on Wednesday and the theater was filled with press ready to rip the film to shreds. In this review of the $125 million Darren Aronofsky film, readers will get a step-by-step overview of the movie and a comparison to Bible scriptures that support or differ from the script.

WARNING SPOILERS BELOW:

The film opens up with the depiction of the fall of mankind. Flashing through scenes, a cartoonish looking serpent is shown in the garden, then a heart pulsating fruit that is eaten by Adam and Eve, and the first murder by Cain of Abel. Viewers are then taken briefly to when Noah was a kid, in which we are first introduced to Noah's nemesis Tubal-Cain (Ray Winstone) who robs Noah's father Lamech, a descendant of Adam, of his birthright, which oddly enough is a magical snake skin that fell off of the serpent in the garden.

Later in the film, Tubal-Cain claimed to be king and tries to overtake the ark but that and the snakeskin are nowhere to be found in the Bible. Tubal-Cain however is mentioned in Genesis 4:22 as a forger of all instruments of brass and iron.

The movie fast-forwards to a grownup Noah (Russell Crowe) who is warned by "the Creator" in a dream that the earth will be destroyed by a flood. The Bible says "God said unto Noah" so making it visions in a dream was perhaps a creative license taken by the film makers. Although there is no mention of God or God speaking to Noah, He is emphasized throughout the movie as "The Creator."

Noah's wife (Jennifer Connelly) and Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins) both confirmed Noah's mission to save the animals and his family through the ark. Methuselah, Noah's grandfather, which agrees with scripture, possesses powers. The movie does not make it clear whether they come from "the Creator" or if they are magical. Methuselah is not mentioned in the Bible other than in the genealogy linking him to Adam and Noah.

Emma Watson's character Ila is written into the story as an orphan child who is adopted into Noah's family, who later becomes his son, Shem's, wife. Contrary to scripture, his two other sons Ham and Japheth are left without wives causing the main riff of the film and Noah's character to later spiral out of control.

Ben Snow who is the special effects supervisor of the film said in the film's press release that the "Watchers" which look like rock monsters with light inside of them, are Aronofsky's imaginary development of the biblical Nephilim, which are giants spoken of immediately before the account of Noah's ark in scripture. In the film the "Watchers" assist Noah in building the ark.

The watchers explained to Noah they are fallen angels cursed by the Creator for helping early man with technology. The Bible makes no mention of these things and the only time we hear of beings getting kicked out of Heaven in scripture is concerning Satan and his angels who are cast out.

These fallen angels help Noah defend and build the ark; when they die in the battle against Tubal-Cain and the bad guys, the creatures then return to their original form as bright lights and go up to heaven. In Christian theology however, fallen angels are said to go to Hell with their leader, Satan.

Animals two by two board the ark, but of course mention of the correct number of clean and unclean animals is not clearly stated like in most depictions of the Noah story. The phrase "two by two" simply means the animals entered the ark in pairs of male and female but scripture stated the clean beasts and birds entered the ark "by sevens," while the unclean animals went into the ark by twos.

Noah and his family use some sort of magical incense to put the animals to sleep for the duration of the flood and their time on the ark. Ari Handel, one of the writers in the Biblical epic explained why they took so many liberties with the things that take place in the ark.

"There's actually very little explicitly known about many aspects of Noah's story, Noah doesn't even speak a word until he get's off the ark," Handel said, "So everything these characters thought and said was left open."

The movie takes sin and its consequences seriously, showing images of war, violence, theft, and sexual sin, though Noah adds the abuse of the environment as a main factor of the judgment. Perhaps mention of dry land and its resources in the text ignited the "save the trees" notion in the film writers.

Once the ark is just about done being built, Noah becomes so disturbed by human sinfulness that he obsesses on the idea that the entire race should not survive, he and his family included. He explained the Creation story to his family and the CGI is well done, but what raised some concern was the Theistic evolution of the animals.

Once in the ark, Noah's character goes from saying quotes such as "Fire consumes all, water cleanses, separating the pure from the foul," and claiming he was chosen to "save the innocent and the animals," to the melodramatic idea of "we are all being punished," and began to feel he was chosen just to save the animal kingdom and then mankind will die out.

The cinematography and sound really brought to life the experience and terror of the flood, but the portrayal of Noah during this part of the movie is so dark and morbid that he switches from a respected patriarch to someone you begin to despise. Although there is not specific mention of Noah's behavior on the ark during the flood in the Bible, we do read he at least was sane enough to continually check to see if the waters subsided and hear from God once it did.

In the film Shem's wife gets cured of barrenness by grandfather Methuselah and becomes pregnant right before they board the ark. Since she is the only woman besides Noah's wife aboard the ark, Noah believes "The Creator" wanted them all extinguished and he announces a plan to take the lives of his sons babies as soon as they are born to prevent the human race from going forward. Later, with a knife raised over his twin granddaughters head, ready to kill them both, Noah, comes back to his senses.

Unfortunately, from watching the movie it is hard to reconcile this character with the favorable man described in Genesis 6 or the man of faith who became the heir of the righteousness described in Hebrews 11.

The movie concluded with Noah's family getting off the ark and showed his drunken behavior that is mentioned in Genesis 9. The final scene brought some resolution. It included the restart of the earth and the human race, and the biblical altar in Genesis 8. However, instead of God blessing Noah and his sons as noted in the Bible, we saw Noah blessing his granddaughters using the serpents skin, then the rainbow appeared.

Paramount has issued a disclaimer to clarify this movie is only inspired by the Bible, not a line-by-line retelling of the Scripture, pointing people to Genesis for the biblical account of Noah. Children or those not familiar with the biblical story should surely read the full account of Noah in the Bible starting in Genesis 6, before seeing the film.

Watch the trailer below: