Let's get this out of the way first of all: this is not your great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather's Noah.  This is LOOSELY based on the biblical story, with some elements that intersect, but a lot things that are just made up.

So, is that okay?

Well, Mark Burnett's "The Bible" took some leaps of faith at times, even with the story of Noah.  It featured Noah on board the ark telling creation stories to a group of kids.  The Bible says only eight people were on the ark - four married couples.  Even the "Son of God" generally had things right, but there were a lot of inaccuracies that drove scholars crazy.

"Noah" makes stuff up and very early establishes itself as a mythical retelling of the story.  For example, The Watchers are these rock creatures who talk and seem to come right out The Lord of the Rings.  Methuselah is portrayed as a kind of lovable witch doctor.  I think anyone who has a basic felt board understanding of the Bible would get that isn't Cecil B. Demille behind the camera.

I think the movie got some things right.  The arrival of the animals, birds and reptiles is shown in amazing graphic detail.  I think the people who were on earth were horrible people and probably stormed the ark (not in the Bible, just logical reasoning).  Finally, I think the movie does an incredible job showing what that moment of the flood was really like.  The scene is breath taking and brutal.  The screaming and crying!  (By the way, don't take the kids).

God is a real character in the movie, called "The Creator" and he's given credit for making the earth.  Adam, Eve, Seth, Cain, Abel are all real people who match closely to the biblical account.

But then again there is a lot that's inaccurate about Noah.  A lot.  But this film isn't trying to be a biblical movie.  It's directed and written by a guy who wanted to use the Noah story to tell his own story.

Is that okay?

Look, if you want to, see the movie, read the Genesis account in chapters 5-9, then wean from the movie what worked and what didn't.  Do not walk into the movie expecting it to be accurate.  It's not.  But, at times, it is.

Noah has never been a sacred character to believers (like Abraham, David or Jesus) and the account of the flood is still debated to this day.

Let's appreciate that movies like this start conversations about the Bible and hopefully get people to open it up for themselves.

As a movie, I give it a B+.   As a biblical accurate movie, I give it a D+.