Film - Prometheus
*Warning
Spoilers*
I am
a huge Alien fan its still one of my favourite films to this day, a stone cold
classic, closely followed by Aliens not so the other sequels in the franchise
although Alien 3 has grown on me over the years the least said about Alien
Resurrection and the Alien v Predator series the better.
Rumours
of an Alien 5 with original Director Ridley Scott one of the greatest
visualists ever back on board had been circulating for while this was finally
confirmed as news developed of a prequel then a standalone film “Prometheus”
set in the same universe.
It
was to be centred around the “Space Jockey” from Alien the mysterious giant
pilot of the ship where the Nostromo crew had the misfortune to find the face
hugger eggs (re named “Engineers” in Prometheus). It’s a truly wonderfull,
creepy and mysterious scene in the first movie so “Alien” where did the weird
ship come from? What was the purpose of these eggs? Were they a weapon as
hinted in the film and sequels but never explored only in some of the comic
books that came out in the 1990’s.
So I
come to Prometheus I have never been so excited about a film in recent memory I
even joined a fan site took part in the forums and counted down the days to the
many trailers which I analyzed over and over along with the impressive viral
campaign.
The
basic story centers on the crew of the
spaceship Prometheus as they
follow a star map discovered among the remnants of several ancient Earth
cultures. Led to a distant world and an advanced civilization, the crew seeks
the origins of humanity, but instead discovers a threat that could cause the
extinction of the human race, although a familiar theme thrown up in many a Sci
Fi tale it hooked me in.
So
the first weekend of release I saw the film I had been waiting 30+ years to see
Ridley Scott director of Alien and Blade runner returning to Sci Fi what could
go wrong?
Well
actually a lot....
I
will start with the positives the movie looks stunning a seamless blend of epic
sets and flawless CGI, the first third of the film had me transfixed it was all
I hoped it would be. As the ship arrives on an alien world after a 2 year
voyage to investigate a mysterious structure complete with dead engineers’ with
ancient holograms of them running for their lives, some nasty bio mechanical
black goo and a giant humanoid head so
far so Alien but it never progressed from this tense opening.
Acting
wise Michael Fassbender as the ships Android David is as good as everyone is
saying the first few scenes of him looking over the crew and dying his hair
while watching Lawrence of Arabia were fantastic I wish there would have been
more of this interaction as the there were many Characters that were
forgettable in both acting and screen time.
I
warmed to Naomi Rapace as the chief female protagonist Shaw she was no Ripley
but gladly the film stayed away from such comparisons and I felt some genuine
empathy for the situation she found herself in and the same for can be said
Logan Marshall Green as her boyfriend Holloway.
The negatives?
sadly there were many....
Charlize
Theron was wasted as the corporate bad guy Vickers as was Edris Elba as the
very wooden ship’s captain they basically spent the whole movie starring at monitors.
As for Vickers death scene oh lordy! Just run to the side woman! Guy Pearce as
Peter Weyland was completely unrecognisable in some laughable make up it didn’t
work without showing any footage of a younger Weyland as seen on the internet virals.
I
was left with many questions but not in a good way too many clichéd characters
and a poor script clouded any of the big ideas the film may have originally set
out to explore.
I
know its Sci Fi and you need a large portion of belief but this was no excuse
for the terrible character behaviour, plot lines and editing in the last half
of the film.
These
were the worst issues for me
The
exploding engineer head on the table what was the point? Also making the
engineers look Humanoid took away the entire mystic from the original in Alien.
The
Milburn and Fifield characters the two biggest clichés of the film getting lost
despite all the tracking technology then Milburn trying to pet an Alien snake,
I know people had to die etc but it was lame... straight out of a teen horror
movie not what I expected from a Ridley Scott film.
The film’s
most talked about Scene where Shaw performs a self C Section to remove an Alien
Parasite all tension was lost as she stumbles into a room covered in blood and
none of the crew present bats an eyelid! Or even mentions the creature she
leaves in med lab? Bad editing? Plot? Answers please!!
Captain
Janek suddenly deciding the temple was a Military Facility despite no evidence and
crashing the Prometheus into the Engineer ship with the
other two crew members oddly complacent with
this act.
The last scene was
straight out of an AvP film it seemed tacked on setting up a possible sequel
A
lot of Flack deservedly is heading towards script writer Damon LIndelorf but he
has basically done a re write of a story by David Spaits that featured more
Xenomorphs and face huggers etc, it will be interesting to read this when it
eventually surfaces online somewhere.
Having
said a lot of negatives It’s not a crap movie as many are saying but it’s not a
great one either considering the talent and history involved a disappointment
for me personally that they ended up with this story. I had the same feelings
after seeing Alien 3 a case of what should have been, the fan sites are awash
with missing footage and a huge clamour for a director’s cut already, why? The
theatrical Version of Alien and Aliens were perfect the director’s cut and special
editions came out years later the latter adding nothing to the films, the fans
feel cheated perhaps?. Director’s cuts and deleted scenes are for hard core
fans only and DVD extras, this reeks of just plain bad editing to keep to a
shorter running time and lousy a plot. It seems the fan base is split down the
middle between haters and the lovers realistically Prometheus falls somewhere
in between but either side won’t admit it.
As
for a sequel it’s a no go for me I would like to see Scott direct “the Forever
war” and leave this to someone else if it turns into another “Franchise”.
Visually
you will not see a better looking film for a while the Space jockey chair scene
absolutely stunning another what could have been moment, but sorry the
script/Plot and editing all stink it was a re write after all and there may be
the problem Prometheus couldn’t decide if it was a straight prequel or not and
does not sit well alongside the older original.
All
In all its a 120 million dollar B Movie a modern Forbidden Planet if you like even
shades of Doctor Who (a flute that controlled the Engineers ship!), viewed as
such you will enjoy it more like I did with a second viewing!.
