Review: Prometheus

[anarkhos]

Review: Prometheus

After over 2 years of waiting and dreaming and hoping, June 8th has come and gone.  Last night, for the first time in many years, I went to see a movie on opening night.  I dealt with the crowds, paid premium price for my ticket, and strolled happily into the theater with half a hard-on in my pants.

Everything I knew about this film going in was only on the upside.  Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, etc.  Magnificent cast.  Written, produced, and directed by Ridley Scott.  Holy shitballs.  Big budget, excellent visuals, creepy Alien-esque score.  The list goes on and on.  I haven't had higher expectations for a film in a very long time.

I am disappoint.

The film itself was overall very well done.  Nothing felt too rushed, although some things were completely obvious.  The score was what you would expect from a creepy space monster movie.  Visuals were well done with a few that will linger on in my mind, very unsettling.  The performances were very good, especially Michael Fassbender as David the android and Noomi Rapace as Shaw, the "Ripley" character.  Definitely furthered my massive crush on her.  And the directing, production, costumes, and set design were all exquisite.

My major problem with Prometheus is it asks too many questions without addressing them well enough, if at all.  And not in the Blade Runner 'Do Androids dream of electric sheep?' philosophical sense.  They are, for the most part, easily answerable questions.  All the characters would have to do is while stumbling around in the dark, wander into some antechamber and say "OH! So THAT'S what they were doing!"  But no.  Ridley Scott, who rightfully thinks highly of himself, goes the Blade Runner route.  He thinks that he can pose a big question and create a highly debatable and re-watchable film whenever he so chooses.  But it doesn't work for Prometheus.  Blade Runner asks 'why', but Prometheus asks 'what happened', and then refuses to disclose virtually all of the events leading up to when the film takes place.

I feel like this is definitely a movie that requires repeated viewings to truly appreciate, much like a great many other films by Sir Ridley.  I'm sure I'll come to greatly enjoy it given time.  But at the moment I still have a slightly sour taste in my mouth.

All that being said, if you are a fan at all of the original Alien and Blade Runner, I would highly recommend seeing Prometheus.  I also recommend rubbing one out beforehand to avoid having any pent up aggression while watching.

[MetalMusicMan]

Great writeup!  Stealing this for the front page / side bar

I completely agree with everything you said here:

My major problem with Prometheus is it asks too many questions without addressing them well enough, if at all.  And not in the Blade Runner 'Do Androids dream of electric sheep?' philosophical sense.  They are, for the most part, easily answerable questions.  All the characters would have to do is while stumbling around in the dark, wander into some antechamber and say "OH! So THAT'S what they were doing!"  But no.  Ridley Scott, who rightfully thinks highly of himself, goes the Blade Runner route.  He thinks that he can pose a big question and create a highly debatable and re-watchable film whenever he so chooses.  But it doesn't work for Prometheus.  Blade Runner asks 'why', but Prometheus asks 'what happened', and then refuses to disclose virtually all of the events leading up to when the film takes place.

It could have been a REALLY good movie if they had just attempted to explain like, one or two of the bajillion different things that they didn't explain.  Since they didn't do that, I am forced to enjoy it as a poorly written non-story with some really great scenes and visuals... but the story, which begs so hard to be told, is mostly completely missing :\

[magnesium]

I have not seen this movie, and until reading this writeup I didn't know I HAD to watch this movie. The Alien franchise is my favourite sci-fi franchise that exists, and Blade Runner (especially the final cut version) is so powerful in it's mix of future and grit.

What I am slightly shock is that you're surprised nothing is explained when you have this source material to go on. Take Alien for example: You barely know why they are in hypersleep in the first place, and everything is a discovery as to what the bad guys are. Where did the aliens come from, did they cause the crashed ship or were they on the planet beforehand, and really are they sentient or just trying to reproduce like insects. You only really gain a deeper understanding of what the aliens are towards the end of the 3rd movie and throughout the 4th movie, and those are generally regarded as shit when compared to the first two when you don't know what the F-bomb is going on.

So now I really want to see the movie, when before I was blissfully ignorant as to what the hubbub was all about. I need to find a friend to go watch it with whose wife won't want to see it too...

[anarkhos]

I have not seen this movie, and until reading this writeup I didn't know I HAD to watch this movie. The Alien franchise is my favourite sci-fi franchise that exists, and Blade Runner (especially the final cut version) is so powerful in it's mix of future and grit.

What I am slightly shock is that you're surprised nothing is explained when you have this source material to go on. Take Alien for example: You barely know why they are in hypersleep in the first place, and everything is a discovery as to what the bad guys are. Where did the aliens come from, did they cause the crashed ship or were they on the planet beforehand, and really are they sentient or just trying to reproduce like insects. You only really gain a deeper understanding of what the aliens are towards the end of the 3rd movie and throughout the 4th movie, and those are generally regarded as shit when compared to the first two when you don't know what the F-bomb is going on.

So now I really want to see the movie, when before I was blissfully ignorant as to what the hubbub was all about. I need to find a friend to go watch it with whose wife won't want to see it too...

Trust us, it's a lot more complicated than keeping the audience guessing and enthralled with the film.  There are things that need to be explained, or at least hinted at so fans can endlessly debate later on, but they literally give you nothing to go on.

I guess after 33 years of the Alien franchise dominating sci-fi, people just kind of wanted some better answers.

[MetalMusicMan]

Trust us, it's a lot more complicated than keeping the audience guessing and enthralled with the film.  There are things that need to be explained, or at least hinted at so fans can endlessly debate later on, but they literally give you nothing to go on.

Yep :\

[Kumo]

While I do agree that a lot of questions remain unanswered, as a film with a message it was pretty good.

The whole subject that was being blatantly screamed out was  "the creation of life".

1) As humans we usually experience an existential crisis about where we come from.

2) As an android, David REACTED out of an existential crisis as to why he was created, despite not being able to feel despair.

3)  There was that whole concept of Elizabeth not being able to get pregnant, and ironically she gave birth to an alien.

4) To further the concept of #3, it's EXTREMELY ironic that the "Aliens" stemmed from the same life forms that supposedly engineered the human race, as shown in the very end. So according to the movie, we both come from the same place.

5) The fact that we don't know what "happened" is basically very similar to the existential crisis we humans experience.  The whole movie was about where we came from, and that's something that hasn't been answered EVER.

Take it for what it is.  The movie isn't bad by ANY means.

[Kumo]

Also, here's a mindfuck:

Ever seen that show Kablam! on Nickelodeon?

Prometheus and Bob?

Yeah.

[MetalMusicMan]

They're all vague and unexplored concepts that are basically just thrown at the viewer.  Had they made any effort at all to have flushed out those plot elements, it might have been good... but they didn't, so it's stupid.  It's one thing for a movie to "ask open ended, thought provoking questions", but that's not what this movie did.  It just threw out random things and never made any attempt to rationalize them.

I did really like the Android, specifically his line about being disappointed that he was made "just because".  It doesn't really matter though since, in the end, it's all random BS with no real point.

You're being fooled into thinking it's intellectual because it's making you contemplate the missing pieces-- but there's nothing to contemplate because even the writer has no idea why the gaps are there.   It's not making you think in a good way, it's just making you ask questions because nothing had any correlation or made any sense.  Her being incapable of babies and then having an alien baby doesn't actually signify anything.  It's just like "oh, I thought I couldn't have babies... now there's an octopus in my uterus... welp...".  It doesn't mean anything.



Oh, and yeah, Prometheus and Bob was amazing.

[Kumo]

The raw fact that she gave birth to an alien doesn't mean anything, right. But the fact that Ridley Scott inserted that scene there DOES.  It surrounds the premise the movie.

As a fan of the Alien movies, I can see how you would be disappointed.  But as a stand-alone movie, I really think it's good.

[MetalMusicMan]

Bad movie is bad.  It's made more bad by the fact that it draws you in and doesn't seem bad at first.  Then it hits you right in the face with a big, floppy dick of badness.

[Kumo]

You said dick. My argument is now invalid.

[magnesium]

I watched this the other week. I liked it a lot. I didn't see anything unexplained, but some things do need a suspension of disbelief; That is a requirement of all Sci-Fi.

[MetalMusicMan]

I don't think we can be friends any more. 

lol

[oograx]

I like it too but us disagreeing about everything is like, the foundation of our friendship.

[anarkhos]

I absolutely loved the movie, it just could have easily been so much more.