The Ark and the Darkness (2024)

No one on screen disagrees in The Ark and the Darkness, and across 125 minutes that makes it play less like a documentary than a long lecture with good graphics. Ralph Strean’s film walks through the first eleven chapters of Genesis and argues, from a young-Earth creationist view, that Noah’s flood covered the whole planet. It covers the Ark’s size and how many animals it could carry, flood stories from many cultures, fossils packed into layered rock, and polystrate trees, fossil trunks that cross several layers. Geologist Andrew Snelling and paleontologist Gabriela Haynes are among the scientists making the case. The computer animation of the Ark is polished, and Christian outlets praised the production and its message. Biologist Joel Duff disputed how it reads the rock and fossil evidence, and another reviewer said it only works if you already accept its reading of the Bible. It made $2.1 million domestically. A 3.9 because it’s handsomely made and argues one side throughout. $5,589 says you try converting your car’s length into cubits before you’re out of the driveway.

What works: The computer animation and dramatized scenes are polished, and the film lays out its case in a clear, organized way.

What doesn’t: It presents only one side for over two hours, and critics outside its audience disputed how it handles the geological and fossil evidence.

Who it’s for: Viewers who share its young-Earth view or want to understand exactly how that case is made, start to finish.