The official Vatican newspaper, L'Avennire, has labelled Darren Aronofsky's Noah a "missed opportunity" which ignores God, but stopped short of calling for a boycott of the controversial biblical epic.

Its reviewer criticised Aronofksy for veering too far from the account of Noah in the book of Genesis in a verdict published on Thursday ahead of the film's Italian debut. In comments translated by the Hollywood Reporter, the critic also labelled the movie "strange" and "perplexing" while admitting that it represented a "visually potent" piece.

The review in L'Avennire is the first official indication of the Vatican's views on the film, which has been the subject of criticism from religious groups in the US and is currently banned in a number of Muslim countries. The pope's views on the movie became the subject of heavy media interest after star Russell Crowe took to Twitter to offer the pontiff a private screening of the $130m film last month. Crowe and Aronofsky went on to briefly meet Pope Francis in Rome, though it later emerged that the latter had not watched the movie.

The Vatican's verdict won't be much help to Christian audiences wondering whether to see the film, regularly cited as a key demographic target for studio Paramount. The issue may now be somewhat moot: Noah, which also stars Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone and Emma Watson, opened in No 1 spot at the US box office last month and has so far taken $182m worldwide.