Finally watched it, well overdue but finally did.
Ridley Scott returns back to a genre defined by him decades ago. The making of PROMETHEUS has been by far one of the best kept secrets in movie making history and the suspense is frustrating. This critic is a fan of Ridley Scott and has read countless press releases, journal articles and blogs controlled by the movies production house. Not one of them shared a hint of the movie been relatively similar to ALIEN nor did it ever mention that there would be any aliens.
Ridley Scott movies are known to have excessive runtimes since he is a famously known to be a slow storyteller. Just as he dragged the story of ROBIN HOOD at his own pace in 2010 he does the same with a slow narration in PROMETHEUS. The movie enthusiast who is well conversant of the ALIEN trilogy and BLADE RUNNER cannot ignore the gi-normous potential the plot of PROMETHEUS carries in terms of sequels. Yet again the stage has been set by Ridley Scott. As repeated by the synthetic person David (Michael Fassbender) in the movie “Big things have small beginnings”.
Directly extracted from Greek mythology the name PROMETHEUS stands symbolically appropriate and sounds more intriguing than ALIEN doesn’t it? Prometheus was a Titan who stole the gift of fire from the gods and handed it down to us humans. Zeus who found out about it had him strapped to a rock to have his liver eaten out by a bird everyday mythology states. In retrospect the crew on the ship PROMETHEUS are about to share something with mankind that will possibly be our end.
“They went looking for it and what they found could be our end” – This is how the story unfolds.
Almost 3 decades before Ripley and her team followed the SOS signal, funded by Weyland Industries a 17 man crew on board the explorer ship PROMETHEUS follow a star map/invitation discovered by scientists Shaw (Rapace) and Halloway (Marshall Green). The duo believed that it was an invitation that leads us to our creator aka God (as known by normal humans; scientists are not normal). Whilst the science geeks on board are keen on finding answers to feed their minds mission commander Vickers (Theron) has a slightly different agenda for the journey. Touching down on the surface the team is eager to suit up and start exploring – no questions asked. They display no signs of fear instead they are downright nosey and inquisitive on an alienated planet light years away from home (Science will be the end of us someday I tell you!). What Shaw and her team are about stumble upon isn’t there greatest concern. What actually should be there greatest concern is worrying on how to keep those that are on the planet from getting into them and the spaceship. Lastly on the note of the space suits the costuming department does a near perfect job in suiting up the space nerds.
6 personnel step out of the spaceship for the 1st expedition. This critic recalls the names of only 3 of them. Why?
John Spaihts and Damon Lindelofs gets off to a good start however buckles at the knees at a later stage. The plot isn’t a parody as many viewers and critics are convinced to believe so. The plot is sensational and is built on the dynamics of creation and destruction with strands of DNA running into ALIEN. The buckling of the screenplay begins with the strands that attach the story line to the core theme of creation and destruction becoming weak. Characterization is its largest flaw. The characters are void. There isn’t any essence in neither any of them nor any soul apart from David (Michael Fassbender) which is ironic since he is written to be a synthetic person. Hence it is obvious that only 3 names stayed whilst the others disappeared into the abyss of space. The writers ignite massive sparks at various intervals of countless unimaginative ideas but allow them to die away instead of fuelling them. The only saving grace to the screenplay is the open ending and the opportunities for sequels.
Whilst PROMETHEUS isn’t technically a prequel to the 1979 classic it draws a few parallels. These parallels lead to a very obvious debate. Noomi Rapace Vs Sigourney Weaver and Michael Fassbender Vs Ian Holm/Lance Henriksen. Weaver was tough and interesting on screen in comparison to Rapace. The girl with a dragon tattoo isn’t the best bargaining chip to play the space girl who played with fire. While Fassbender is nothing short of impressive. David is a combination of Ash and Bishop. Undoubtedly the best cast member onboard the ship. Charleze Theron is a huge question mark to me. Why did she even agree to get on the cast? Her character of Vickers literally does nothing. She is like a bug that’s floating around and contributes didly squat.
Verdict
Firstly if the viewer expected to sit for 164 minutes at PROMETHEUS and expect something you have never seen before, then you would have left dissatisfied. Remember folks its PROMETHEUS and not AVATAR!
Secondly PROMETHEUS is unimaginative. This is what Ridley Scott is good at. He brings to life the most unbelievable of events and makes them moments. The Art direction is near flawless. The aerial views shot in Iceland are mind boggling. Adjectives fail me at this time.
Thirdly although rated R it isn’t thrilling or frightening as Scotts previous work. Instead it’s a visual extravaganza that leads us viewers to an unimaginable open ending.
TITLE: PROMETHEUS
DIRECTED BY: RIDLEY SCOTT
STARRING: NOOMI RAPACE, MICHAEL FASSBENDER, CHARLIZE THERON, IDRIS ALBA, GUY PEARCE, LOGAN MARSHALL GREEN, SEAN HARRIS, RAFE SPALL, EMUN ELLIOT, BENEDICT WONG & KATE DICKIE
RATED: R
RATING: 7.5 /10
RUNTIME: 124 MINUTES