I began hearing murmurs of something prequel-ish being possibly in the works in the then-not-too-distant future during the second half of the 2000's and allowed myself to get my curiosity piqued but refused to get too excited given the rumor mill-ish nature of what I was reading and hearing. Next, I began reading and hearing that this project started out as a prequel and in the process of writing it Ridley Scott (director of the original Alien movie) went on a bit of a bird walk and the movie ended up more along the lines of setting the universe for the Alien movie franchise but not specifically addressing the Space Jockey and his ship seen in the first Alien movie which element has always begged a prequel. This news disappointed me and did turn out to be utterly true. However, I needn't have worried as I have ecstatically discovered over the course of two viewings in two weeks. I dogmatically state here and now without reservation or any fear of being guilty of hyperbole that Prometheus is a great movie in its own right (regardless of genre) and one of the great science fiction movies of all time. Furthermore, I will add to that the view that this movie does justice to and is on an equal par with the Alien movie franchise.
Prometheus is great on many levels and for many reasons. Prometheus is a very well-written story. It touches on a variety of themes most prominent of those being what is the origin of humanity and what is it to be human? Prometheus is well-directed as Ridley Scott created a gem here with not only his writing but also how he got the most out of this great cast whom performed consistently well throughout. Prometheus is well-cast. I cannot think of anybody miscast in that movie. The choice of Michael Fassbender to play the ship-board android "David" was a stroke of brilliance and brilliant was Fassbender's performance in this film. I am utterly in love with this character and hope to see him again in an Alien movie franchise prequel sequel which seems inevitable given how this movie ends. Also deserving particular praise is Noomi Rapace as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (a new actress to me but I love her in this film) who creates a new heroine of note in this movie franchise all the while not threatening Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley as the all-time queen of sci-fi heroines. Prometheus has great special effects which help suspend disbelief while not transgressing in the usual fashion in movies nowadays by getting carried away with what special effects are possible and allowing the special effects to drive the plot and attempt to carry the movie and usually to an unsatisfying effect. Indeed, computer generated images (CGI) is used now almost exclusively over the old method of using models. The effect is to make movies look and feel more and more like video games instead of films and the CGI look like video games and have a rather unreal quality about them which fails to suspend disbelief. This film makes use of a lot of models all the while utilizing CGI quite effectively.
I could go on and on and break this film down more and more but I will leave that to the movie critics and film school students. Just watch the movie if you haven't already and if you miss it in the theaters then by all means watch it on DVD but do so with surround sound and a good television screen... the bigger the better!
Below is a short web-featurette introducing us to the delightfully entertaining character of David in a futuristic faux corporate infomercial format. This was created to introduce us to this character outside the movie itself. As I see it the only weakness of this featurette is that it omits David's unintentional humor and irony as well as his darker side that is devoid of evil but is fairly indifferent to human well-being if his programming gives him that latitude in a particular case.
from wiberg - Good review but I still disagree with you - it is the writing and plot points that hurts this film the most. The film looked great and had great potential but the biggest problem is the writing (this film was not written by Scott, but by two others, one of whom is known for writing the tv show Lost). Oddly, the most developed character was the robot. The mercenary scientists acted so incredibly stupid at times it pulls the viewer out of the film. The old man, gets his ass kicked after a five second chat with an Engineer. Overall, Big Movie with Big Ideas but is a Big Mess (albeit enjoyable mess) - let's see if the dvd with extra scenes makes it less so.
ReplyDeleteMarkus, I disagree with your disagreement! Yes, Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof get the official credit for writing it but it is widely known that Ridley Scott helped them (even he has made remarks alluding to his role in the story line). Given his gravitas as Ridley Scott and the fact the concept of this remake was his idea as well as his role as director I consider him the ultimate writer of this movie while the two aforementioned gentlemen were essentially doing his bidding. Just about any movie can be fairly criticized for one thing or another and some movies more or less than others. Yes, the two mercenary scientists' behavior was in my mind the most major annoyance and in second place being the failure by the captain to remotely check on the folding chair dead dude outside the ship by way of robotic probes. I fail to see your criticism of the old man getting killed by the Engineer the way it went down. To me those two weak points in the plot do not overall detract from the overall excellence of the movie.
Deletethank you for admitting the film had some flaws. Perhaps the sequel will explain unanswered questions.
ReplyDeleteand did you watch this yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-x1YuvUQFJ0
Dear Anonymous,
DeleteAs I stated in the above rebuttal, ALL movies have flaws, some more than others. Even all-time great movies are not without imperfections. This movie answered some questions while postulating some news ones. It would have been an inferior movie had it left no unanswered questions. Movies, particularly great ones need not answer any questions let alone leave a few unanswered. Effective art, be it cinematic or otherwise, ASK questions, not answer them. The unanswered questions in this film are intentional and leave the door open to a mandatory sequel to the prequel.
Dear Anonymous Markus, I did finally get around to watching that short film... thanks for reminding me to watch it. It was very clever and funny but most of its questions have obvious answers and those it does not are a tiny minority that are intentionally left unanswered. I finally figured out why the two dumb scientists were added to the cast and plot-line... comic relief! It seems absurdly obvious and a rather simplistic plot device but you have to remember that these guys only have creative writing degrees!
Delete