I love Steve Carell and he is one of the biggest comedy stars today. Most of what he is involved in makes a lot of money so it was understandable that this film was greenlighted despite the fact that at the time it was the largest budget assigned to a comedy film ever (it might still be, I'm not sure about this.) $175 million is a crazy amount of money to spend on a film and a completely ridiculous amount to spend on a comedy. However, when we start incorporating the amount of CGI that is gonna be necessary when recreating the Ark and the animals that board it, it's gonna get expensive.
I think there is a very good reason why I rate this film much higher than the professional critics and also a vast majority of non professional reviewers: I have a soft spot for Steve Carell and much of this movie was filmed very near where I went to high school. The movie itself is silly and to be honest, not terribly funny because Steve can only hurt himself so many times trying to use old timey tools before that slapstick stops being humorous.
The Ark in the film is not CGI, it was actually constructed in full-size based on the Biblical proportions of 450 feet long and 80 feet wide. This was a massive undertaking and it happened in rural Virginia just a few miles from where I spent 10 years of my life or so. It was so huge that when filming was completed it took them a week to take the thing down.
The story in this film is that Evan Baxter (Carell) has recently been elected to Congress and just when he is about to start his job God visits him and turns him into Noah (kinda) and things start happening to Evan that at first he resists with all his will. He later reluctantly decides to build the ark and blah da blah dee blah. You know, there is a reason why this movie failed.
I know that my opinion is a bit biased because of my proximity to a set locations but there are some funny aspects of this movie that I really enjoyed such as when all animals start to have an affinity towards Evan and he has no idea why. They follow him everywhere and this is where a massive amount of the overall budget was spent. Much of it is real and much of it is CGI. I thought it was visually pleasing. The story is kind of dumb (as it's box-office take and overall critical review) would suggest. I think this movie would actually be really fun especially for kids or people like me that refuse to grow up.
On a scale of "urgh!" to "Wowsers!" I can't possibly give Evan Almighty a higher score than this, even once my bias is factored it....
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