The Summer of movies continues….Prometheus.
So to me, Prometheus was another of my highly-anticipated movies this summer. It has seemingly everything going for it – Ridley Scott as director/creative genius; solid cast (Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba); plot concepts originally from the ‘Alien‘ movies (well the first two – good, not the later two – lame – nor the even lamer Alien vs. Predator series); some interesting pre-movie hype (see previous post on Guy Pearce’ fake TED speech); – but the result ended up a bit mixed for me. SPOILERS BELOW!!!!
First, the good stuff:
The movie LOOKS AMAZING. While I’m sure they reaped the rewards of capitalizing on some of Avatar‘s special effects innovations – I personally think this movie simply blows Avatar out of the water visually – despite having a much ‘grayer’ visual look and an obviously much darker theme. Scott has taken the earlier ‘Alien’ SFX, including the H.R. Giger artwork, and gone to a whole new level. The ships, action sequences on the planet, the set(s) used for the ship interiors – all of it is just amazing and very realistic-looking. Another major influence on the visuals has to be Chris Foss – their ship looks like it flew right out of one of CF’s paintings, and the overall effect of ‘tiny man, huge alien spacecraft/planet bases’ is a regular Foss artistic theme.
I also liked the cast. I think the actors chosen were well-suited and believeable in their roles, despite in many cases not having enough to do or say (see below). Noomi Rapace looks like a ‘tough Audrey Tatou‘ to me, and Charlize Theron seemed like she was shaping up to be the ‘Ripley character’ – she has nearly the same voice and bad-ass-type bearing as Sigourney Weaver in the first two Alien movies – but her role ends up pretty different than Ripley. Michael Fassbender is the humanoid robot, kind of a ‘twisted Commander Data’ if you will – because it’s completely obvious from the first scene he’s up to something, and Fassbender has given him a strong dose of soft-spoken malevolence to boot (HAL 9000, anyone?).
The not-so-good:
The Plot – while not near as thin as say, TRON:Legacy was – there are some gaping plot holes here that just don’t make sense or seem inexplicable given the considerable talent and effort that went into this movie.
Example one – what IS Charlize Theron’s real role here – is it as enabler, spoiler or indifferent observer of Guy Pearce’s (Weyland Corp.) dream to discover these aliens? Is she only in it for a paycheck? She seems at first to be the person who’s going to end up running the show but that doesn’t happen, and despite several scenes where she’s obviously ‘in charge’ – there are many other critical scenes where she’s nowhere to be found, nor in charge?
Example two – where was the rest of the crew – especially David, who put it in her, when Noomi Rapace is busy using the med-unit to forcibly remove the alien implanted in her body? Was everyone else taking a nap, or?
Example three – when the ship’s xenobiologist reaches out to actually TOUCH the cobra-like alien swimming around in puddles in the ancient alien ship on the planet – it attacks him. What did he THINK was going to happen? This was simply ridiculous to me – of COURSE it was going to attack him and even if it didn’t, no biologist EVER does something SO STUPID without adequate preparations and care? Especially not one on ANOTHER PLANET.
Example four – I find it hard to believe generally that a private corporation would be the ONLY entity making such an obviously momentous and historic journey to potentially discover Man’s possible ancestors? No govt’ involvement at all? This is where movies like Contact and 2001/2010 have simply done a better job on this point, I think. It seems almost impossible for such discoveries to remain secret if under control by one govt., let alone a private corporation? Heck, there were actual Marines on the second Alien ship – but here? Hmmm……not even private mercenaries?
Example five – Guy Pearce’ sudden appearance ON THE SHIP in the latter 3rd of the movie – hel-lo? And all those ‘extra crew’ that seemingly appeared out of nowhere with him? Come ON, guys – did everyone cryo-sleep in a secret footlocker for the first half of the movie?
Another aspect was simply ‘not enough explanation’ – the whole opening sequence is a complete mystery without a bit more info? There was some interesting speculation in the IMDB faq on the movie, but it’s unconfirmed. Maybe on the DVD later this year….
I guess in summary, not unlike TRON:Legacy of a couple years ago, this movie fulfills in many ways, but in some key ways, is simply flawed, given its implied mission as a ‘big thoughts’ kind of movie – If I compare it to say, The Avengers – I have to say that in some ways, The Avengers is more entertaining, but it’s also a silly superhero movie, so you don’t take it seriously in the first place. It is probably harder to reach for bigger meaning in a movie – but when you do, you have to deliver, or it’s going to be more obvious you haven’t.
candybowl
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