The following Fan Review contains spoiler information.PROMETHEUS, MY THOUGHTS
So, Prometheus has landed everywhere in the world now and the Extraterrestrial cat is now out of the bag. As one of many who grew up watching the ALIEN movies what did I think?
Before I start the review let me just say that the audience I was with was a solid audience. No annoying bastards making noise and things like that. The theater wasn't full or packed, but it wasn't empty either. It was that Goldilocks zone of just enough to not make one worry, but not too many that the place is crowded with annoying people.
Right off I gotta say, the movie is beautiful. Some absolutely breath taking scenery and cinematography.
Prometheus is a lot of fun, and I think I can pinpoint where people are dissappointed, and why. It's an unfortunate consequence of people wanting certain things and those certain things either being wholly different than anticipated (The Jockey's being super-humans, essentially, for one.) or not being present at all. (Some were hoping for a narrative that directly tied to the original Alien.)
I had heard a lot of the flak leveled against the film for having a very 'butchered' edit. I honestly, and bare in mind this comes from someone who has been studying, practicing, and doing editing since I was 13, only a couple places exist where the film really shot itself in the foot with editing. The most glaring for me was Shaw's character not telling anyone about her newborn baby. I can forgive this one though. To be fair there was a lot happening on the ship, Weyland is revealed for the first time, and there's a strong sense of urgency. It's a tricky choice, as exposition can absolutely destroy a film's pace. Which is more important? Well, Ridley seemed to feel his forward thrust was more important at this point.
There is one objective that Prometheus fails out, for ALIEN veterans that is, and that is the horror and scares. The audience I was with was pulled into the scare moments far better than I was. I saw this film with my brother and his new girlfriend. She had never seen any of the ALIEN films, and my brother had only passingly watched ALIENS with me. And neither of them are too big on scares or scary films. So for them, what the movie was delivering was probably very intense. Honestly I found myself grinning and just enjoying the excitement of these scenes more than being terrified by them. As I told my brother upon exiting the theater "Alien didn't have a sense of humour, it was out to get you from the moment the title sequence starts." That's not something that bothered me so much. I enjoyed the movie for being a Science Fiction epic, with a peppering of action. So thumbs down on the scares, but with the aforementioned modifier.
I found that the musical score actually worked quite well. A number of the bits which I had heard were misused and seemed not to fit the tone, actually fit the tone of film perfectly. What they don't fit is an
ALIEN movie. But that's, again, where I think the veteran fans aren't fully understanding what they were watching. It wasn't supposed to be an Alien Prequel, in anything but
spirit. Even with the ending(I'll get to it). The movie only borrows a vague set dressing and some ideas from the bible of Alien, but it itself is not an Alien movie proper. It deals with very different subject matters, and has a very different intent. The Alien movies were never about exploring our origins, whereas Prometheus is a good 90% about that.
My biggest complaint with the film is the character, honestly. I wanted more. I liked pretty much everyone. Even Logan Marshall Green's Holloway, who upon meeting his demise, I had basically had a complete reversal of how I felt about his character. Going into the movie I hated the man, and I hated his character. By his death the SOB actually grew on me a bit. He certainly didn't deserve what he got. I loved Shaw and Holloway's relationship, and I wish it had been given a little more time in the film to really grow early on. Certain things are a little hamfisted, like Shaw's "I'm barren." In my experience, that kind of moment does not lead to sex. It leads to a lot of holding and crying. Call me old fashioned.
There was one bit of exposition from Captain Janek that comes out of left field, and honestly I wish it had been given more context. Janek has seen the inside of the temple, and he comes to the conclusion that it's a weapons factory. He, however, hadn't
said anything about it until he's talking with Shaw. It would have been nice if he had this epiphany
while he was still in the temple where the revelation would have given a nice "oh shit" moment for the audience. It also would have been nice if his military background was in someway given in the early portion of the film to help explain why he sees things in such military terms.
As far as our leading ladies I loved both of them. I actually find myself more endeared to Shaw than I do to Ripley. There's just something about her. She has a strength of presence that Weaver didn't quite have. In particular I found the religious nature of her character to be handled with tact and very maturely. It wasn't used as an excuse to bash or support religion. She just "chooses to" believe, even in the face of all the horrible stuff going on around her. Big credit to Noomi Rapace's performance. I hope we get to see more of her character in the sequel. Where she leaves off, and where she's going holds the promise of some very interesting developments.
Charlize Theron's
Meredith Vickers is a fantastic addition. Again, I wish we had been given a bit more of her character background. Particularly her relationship to her father. It needed a bit more meat, and the delivery of that little revelation is very contrived.
To my surprise there was one final bit that I really appreciated as someone who was debating the science behind Prometheus for the better part of six months up to it's release. One of the characters, Millburn, gives a bit of a shout out to Darwinism and "If you kids want to throw out three centuries of dawrinism, good luck with that." I appreciated that. The movie acknowledges it's own absurdity in that regard, and it diffuses some of the silliness.
That brings me to the big final element of Prometheus. The biggest of all. The alien beings we've waited 30 years to know anything about. The Engineers...
...Handled absolutely perfectly in my book. I was never on board with the scientific premise of the film. But the opening scene that depicts an engineer sacrificing himself to be recombined into the early forms that would
eventually lead to us was filmed
beautifully. Their motivations are shrouded in mystery, and they provoked genuine interest from me. I wanted to see more of them. Learn more. What we get though is incredibly intriguing. Particularly interesting I found was the scene when the engineer first wakes up. He takes little regard for the humans around him and moves with complete alpha superiority. When he does finally acknowledge the humans presence. What must we look like to him? A bunch of small, noisey human beings, one beating on the female of the species, and what's this? One of them speaks our language? Hm...
So far, yet
so pathetic.
If I were to rate Prometheus up against it's fellow Alien movies i'd have to give it about a
6.5/10. It outdoes both AVP films, Alien Resurrection, Alien 3, and gets prety close to being as good as Aliens. A few pitfalls in the editing keep it from reaching it's best, and I honestly think an extended cut with more characterisation would fix most of the films major flaws. We need more about these people to care.
As a Science Fiction epic released in the era of instant gratification and flashy effects? I'd give it an additional point,
7/10. I didn't leave the theater dissappointed. I left with a smile on my face, and on the faces of my compatriots who were all talking about what we had just seen, and the best part is? My brother and I went home and watched Alien together for the first time.
Is Prometheus everything it could have been? No. It's a flawed film, to be sure, but is it
bad?
Absolutely not.I hope Prometheus does well enough not only to warrant a sequel, but also to warrant a rejuvenation in big budget Science Fiction films, as the genre has been floundering for quite awhile.
-Steve
