Prometheus

Year: 2012

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Scott

Review

disappointing in that i didn’t know i was going to see the first of a multi-film series; though i guess they all are these days. we went through a stage a while back where we had lots of remakes of older films like the day the earth stood still, and now it seems like the studios have figured that it’s even better to just remake the same movie over and over again in a revival of the serials like thin man and the charlie chan movies. so, we get four movies of twilight and a series of films around the avengers and now they’re going to milk this one. i’ve love to see a little less of this, but i understand it and, sometimes i even like it.

prometheus is co-written by damon lindelof (who co-wrote lost) so it’s a fair guess that there’s going to be a fair amount of obfuscation in the storytelling. there’s really nothing new that is introduced here. it’s a film about the origins of our species and, in this case, the writers posit that aliens did it. ok, i’ve heard that before. the wrinkle, is that they don’t like us and want to wipe us out. i guess we’ll have to stay tuned for more to see why that is or if we care. lindelof’s writing is decidedly unintelligent in some critical ways. the verdict isn’t out yet on lost as i haven’t finished the series, but here it’s obvious that he’s either not smart or doesn’t think much of scientists. i’m guessing it’s him. for example, theron’s character says that they’ve traveled half a billion miles to find the aliens. right away i started thinking to myself – well, the sun is about 92 million miles from earth which means that they didn’t travel very far and there’s no way that they would need to be asleep for two years to get there. what a joke. also, these brilliant scientists who are on the leading edge to the extent that they travel to the outer reaches of space, are disappointed after six hours on the new planet because they haven’t gotten a chance to ask the aliens why they were created? huh? or, how about these brilliant minds taking off their helmets in an unknown world without any precautions? leave your helmets on. or their constant desire to touch and prod the unknown things on this planet. it’s just silly and illogical writing. find a way to advance the plot without making the characters look like completely morons, it makes it so much better for the audience.

the film is successful, though, not because of its deep meaning or writing, but because the actors and scott do a good job. he ratchets the tension well and they sell the terror or (in fassbender’s case) vacancy very well. it’s also cool to see the way the film references the alien films or 2001 or any number of other sci-fi films.

bad writing aside, it’s a good and captivating film that was also nice to look at. hopefully they get someone with some brains to write it next time around.

Watched in theater