Well
the blockbuster season in full throttle and the release date of the highly
anticipated Alien prequel, Prometheus, is upon us and like a lot
of other films being released this year, there was a lot of hype revolved
around. After the unsatisfying
conclusion of Alien 3 and the
disaster of Alien: Resurrection, and
the universally hated Alien V.S. Predator
films, the franchise was effectively dead.
But then a few years ago, Ridley Scott, director of the first Alien film decided to revive it with a
then untitled prequel. And now, three
years later we have the fruit of idea; Prometheus. So has this film lived up to the hype and
will it revive the franchise or is it just another crappy installment in a
franchise that should have ended in 1986 with Aliens? Let’s find out.
The film takes place in 2093 when an
archaeologist couple discovers a series of star maps among several unconnected
ancient cultures and believes it to be an invitation to an alien world and home
to creatures that may have created mankind.
With the backing of Wayland Industries, the two set out with a crew on
the ship Prometheus to find this planet and meet their possible creators. However, upon arriving on the planet, the
humans quickly discover that this place was not what they thought and the journey
proves much more deadly they any of them anticipated.
Now, as you all may or may not know,
certain things have been a bit…shall we say controversial among critics and
audiences alike but we’ll get to that in a minute. Now, starting with what they got right, they
knocked it out of the park. From the technical side of things, the film
is fantastic. The visual effects were fantastic
and with one or two exceptions, I believed just about everything on screen was
or could be real. As with the first Alien film, the art direction is
fantastic. The Prometheus had a great
design to it and used technology that I can believe will exist in the time
period the film takes place in. The same
goes for the Engineers’ complex. While I
do question why an advance alien race would put their complex underground, (I
know, overanalyzing. We all do it
sometimes), I love the look of the place and how the technology within
works. The original designs by H.R.
Giger are still used and look better than ever, combining old special
effect/art direction techniques with new ones and it makes the complex look
amazing.
The acting in this film is also top
notch, with all the actors giving their all in their performances and they help
make the characters likeable even if they aren’t exactly three
dimensional. The most notable of these
is Idris Elba who takes the very stock role of the ship’s captain and makes
something out of it. Charlize Theron likewise
gives a great performance as Wayland Industries corporate liaison and unlike
many of the other characters she actually seems like a fleshed out character. The guy who stole the show, however, and the
one everyone talks about is Michael Fassbender as David the Android. And I’m not going to lie. People have not exaggerated his performance
in the least bit. He is all at once
pleasant and threatening and you’re never really sure what he’s up to but you
know he has his own agenda that is separate from everyone else’s and this really
keeps you on edge.
Now,
the next part of this post is probably going to be a bit more…shall we
say….controversial, mainly because a lot of people seem to have mixed thoughts
on this subject, (in fact I think I may be among the few who likes this). This subject is the plot and I’m not going to
lie. I really, really liked it. To me, this film seemed like a really good
combination of the exploration elements of 2001:
A Space Odyssey and the plot elements of At the Mountains of Madness.
In fact, in many ways it actually feels more like an adaptation of that
story that just happens to take place in the Alien Universe more than an Alien
prequel. And I really like this and felt
that if that is what the writers were going for, they succeeded. Between this and the musical score, (very reminiscent
of Blade Runner’s), it feels more
like a tale of space exploration where the characters just run in to terrible
situations rather than a sci-fi/horror film which made for an unexpected but
pleasant surprise.
The
thing that has been pissing off a lot of people however is the fact that by the
end of the film, you’re left with more questions than answers and if you can’t
take that then this isn’t your kind of film.
I, on the other hand, actually love it when films, games, shows and
novels do this. It keeps the mystery
alive and people guessing and just makes me want to go back to that universe
over and over again. And that’s what I ultimately
took away from this film. I want to see
this universe again and learn more things about it and discover the solutions
to the unanswered questions. But again I
may be in the minority on this one and a lot of people, be they critics or
everyday people have complained against this film for it so make your own judgment
call on this one.
There
were, however, a few glaring problems with this film and I would be lying if I said
that they didn’t bother me. For
starters, for as much as I loved the plot of this film, there were two major
problems I had with it. The first was
this one so called twist concerning the expedition and David’s motivations when
he seems to go rouge. In a nutshell, a
saw it coming a mile away and anyone with half a brain probably will as well
once they see one particular scene with David.
After that you’ll probably be able to guess about a sixth of the film or
so. The other major fault with the story,
(other than the more questions than answers issue), is a subplot they put into
the film which clearly had no purpose other than to get higher body count, (and
something else that I can’t disclose for spoiler reasons), and I found myself
asking “Why would the characters do that?
What could they possibly gain from this?” It’s something that I know a lot of people
will bring up and I know exactly where they’re coming from.
The themes of the film kind of
seemed shoved down our throat as if the film was dumbing it down for less intelligent
audience, (although considering what usually grosses billions I can’t say that I
blame them). Right alongside this is
some very obvious foreshadowing with a good deal of SSBS in the first act of
the film, which again seems to play down to a less intelligent audience. While the characters are likeable and very
well acted they aren’t as fleshed out as they should be and often come off as
very two dimensional. In fact, many of
the characters were obviously put in just so the film could have a higher body
count. And as I mentioned before the
film feels more like an exploration film then it does sci-fi/horror and as a
result, the film isn’t scary. There are many
moments where I was on the edge of me seat in suspense but it still wasn’t
scary. Some of the special effects also
looked a little off at times, particularly towards the end and I found myself scratching
my head at it.
The
last thing that I have to mention is that this is the film that probably killed
3D for me. While it didn’t dilute the experience
for me it didn’t really do anything to add to it either, (other than give me a
headache) and this will probably be the last film I see in this format.
All
around I have to say that I really enjoyed this film and thus far, it’s
probably my favorite film of 2012 so far.
But I have to approach this is a critic and not a sci-fi fanboy. There are a lot of great things to be had in
this film and all the good things make it more than worth the price of
admission. I highly recommend that you
see it, as it is a good film. It has
great visuals, great acting, great special effects and great concepts and a
fantastic exploration theme and I wanted to give this film a really high score. But there are some glaring problems that I can’t
ignore. There are people out there who
will hate the way it ends. That’s just a
fact. The other flaws have to do with
the characterization and the two bad plot points in the film and these things
do take it down a few pegs. But all
around, I really enjoyed this film. I truly
believe that the good in this film outweighs the bad in it and I highly
encourage you to go see it and at least give it a try before people start
trying to tell you what to think.
All
Around
7.75/10
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