Perhaps one of the Ten Commandments should be "Thou shalt not make an Old Testament epic".

The CGI animals are spectacular, the battles less so and, though none of it really makes sense, neither, some might argue, does the Bible.

It's as odd and schizophrenic a picture as you're likely to see in the focus-grouped, play-it-safe moviemaking climate of the moment, and the fact that it exists at all is sort of a (ha ha) miracle.

As Aronofsky tries to make sense of an emotional parable, often achieving such in stunning visual terms, 'Noah' is a messy, disaster epic that works as a character study and red-blooded fantasy both.