Das Arche Noah Prinzip

The year is 1997, and World Peace seems to have come, with most classic weapons of mass destruction having been abandoned. However, orbiting the Earth there is the European/American space station FLORIDA ARKLAB, capable of controlling the weather at any location on the planet underneath. A civil project by nature, it might be abused as an offensive weapon, since it could deliver devastation to any potential adversary simply by creating natural disasters such as storms and floods. No wonder the space station soon becomes the central point in rising political tensions between East and West, next stop World War 3 (as indicated by the German tagline (transl.) "The end of our future has already begun"). We're following the main protagonist Billy Hayes, an astronaut aboard the station, as he wades through a plot of secrecy and sabotage trying to tell friend from foe in the process.

This film is the first "real" movie by Roland Emmerich, and knowing his later works, it is, simply speaking, surprisingly good. First off, it was and is a visual treat by any standard, with well-crafted models and a set-design that made a point in trying to look as realistic as possible. At that, it is visually reminiscent of many other movies from that era (Star Wars or Moonraker, to name some), but doesn't fail nearly as badly as some of them do; it simply looks good. And what's more, this movie has a story that makes some sense and won't let you leave your seat until it is resolved. The acting is good, the characters are well drawn and partly are in for some surprise. The general mood is by no means optimistic, this is definitely a Cold War scenario, which nowadays of course has the tendency to make you chuckle, considering that 1997 looked totally different than portrayed in the movie.

Bottom line: if you know later Emmerich blockbusters such as ID4 and Godzilla, you definitely notice his handwriting in this one, and seeing the path he took from here on makes sense. But much unlike said later works, this movie excells not only in the audio and CGI department, but also has something like characters and storyline. People liked ID4 as a cineastic lollipop, but as a film, this one is far better than most

This is truly the worst film I have ever watched.

I liked the cover, so i took it from the video rental shop. Big mistake. Everyone this evening was blaming me for wasting 2h of their life.

The real hard thing is... i watched this movie, and I just didn't understood the story. It was confusing and had no red line. At the end of the film I didn't knew the film was about... the only thing i knew was, there was a space station.

Roland Emmerich did nice Jobs with "Independence Day" or "Godzilla"... but this one was really awful. Calling this film "the German 'Star Wars'" is offending everything German.

Fascinating and also inconceivable somehow, that THIS really was a breakthrough for Emmerich's career. Okay, the whole career is fascinating measured at the movies he makes - but this one ... Wow! I totally agree with "malk4": Nearly the only thing memorable (and kinda understandable) and worth mentioning is: "There was a space station"!

Studying in Berlin in 1984, I attended a packed first screening of this film, billed as "Der Deutsche Star Wars." I was astonished at how childishly executed the film was. It seemed to have a single special effect, space station scaffolding rumbling past camera(sound in space?), re-used 7 times. I counted. The plot was equally thin. CIA world domination, love story, bad marriage, predictable lines. pacing excruciatingly slow. The audience that day was equally unimpressed, so it wasn't just me.

Happily, the director went on to make real eye candy with decent budgets.

In the future of 1997, Billy Hayes (Richy Muller) returns to Earth from the weather control and research station Florida Arklab, a joint European and American project, where he details the events involving fellow astronaut Max Marek (Franz Buchrieser) and the two's uncovering of insidious plans involving the station.

The Noah's Ark Principle was the first film to be produced and directed by Roland Emmerich who'd later achieve greater success in America outside his homeland of West Germany. Emmerich was inspired to make an effects heavy science-fiction film following his graduation from the German Film and Television Academy due to the continued success of Star Wars and other effects heavy American blockbusters which Emmerich studied as part of his degree requirement. Securing funding from noted producer Bernd Eichinger, Solaris-Film, and the Academy itself, Emmerich produced the film for around 1 million Deutsche Marks using an old factory as a studio and completing the special effects at Bavaria Studios in Munich. Upon release the film received some praise for its impressive effects work for such a low budget production, but was only a modest success due to only modest distribution as the film never saw release in the United States due in no small part to its portrayal of the United States. As this is effectively a student film it's important to view it in perspective, and as a showcase of Emmerich's handling of effects heavy work you can definitely see it here.

On a technical level The Noah's Ark Principle does a nice job of establishing its central Florida Arklab space station which is impressively designed and realized especially in comparison to certain other effects heavy works from around the same time. The movie is considerably more slow paced in comparison to many effects heavy films from around the same time and is more of a chamber drama for most of its runtime than a proper thriller or sci-fi film with most of the shady stuff involving shadowy political forces being pretty apparent from the getgo. While Emmerich hasn't quite cemented his style here, you can see shades of the Emmerich we'd come to know from the shadowy government conspiracy (which no joke, is revealed through a program file that has the acronym "INVASION"), the quirky scientist outsider protagonist (though not as over the top as his 90s takes on it), or the estranged couple drama that would be part and parcel to many of his disaster films. While I can't say the movie kept me hooked, I can say it did showcase an impressive amount of polish and potential for Emmerich's handling of this level of effects heavy work.

The Noah's Ark Principle is best viewed as more of a technical proof of concept rather than a full movie in and of its own right and for a first time film from a Germanic filmmaker that didn't have major studio resources at his beck-and-call, Emmerich does showcase a solid display of talent. It's a shame the film isn't more readily available because it probably deserves a higher end transfer if only for the technical craft involved even if it's more a historical curiosity than anything that demands a viewing.