Prometheus - Movie Review
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce
Prometheus opens with beautiful sweeping vistas of completely isolated landscapes backed with a thrilling score. Gorgeous scenery with no clue-is this earth or some completely alien planet. Then a hooded figure becomes slowly visible . . . .
If only the rest of the movie had lived up to those first few minutes.
Set eighty-ish years in the future, the movie is visually stunning. Once the action leaves Earth, the spaceship Prometheus is intricate, futuristic, and above all, believable. It appears large enough to house sufficient equipment and supplies to keep the crew going for the long journey there and back home. Little details of the sets are well-thought out, making it a veritable feast for the eyes.
The special effects, too, are first rate-from little details like making the equipment look good to the big explosions to (better keep that one a surprise). The atmosphere alternates between futuristic and truly creepy. And this is not a film for the faint of heart-some of the effects are almost surgically graphic in a attempt to be scary. Honestly, I didn’t jump in fear so much as I was just grossed out by the effects.
Other bright spots are some of the performances: Charlize Theron as a representative of our old favorite, the Weyland Corporation, is absolutely arresting whenever she has screen time. She has her own agenda, of course, and plays her cards very close to the vest. Michael Fassbender is also a high point, as the required “artificial human” on board the Prometheus. Noomi Rapace as Dr. Shaw, and Idris Elba as the Captain of the Prometheus are completely convincing, drawing us into their futuristic world.
Once you get past the visual, though, things start to fail. The plot seems to be pieced together out of bits with no one looking out for the overall package. It almost appears that the story was written with no outline, running to the finish-then no one went back over it to backfill the inconsistencies. Little, irritating tidbits throughout added up and became really annoying-for example, it’s interesting to the audience to be surprised by some of the technology the exploration team uses, but surely the other team members would have been briefed about it. Their surprise, while it mimicked ours, seemed somehow wrong.
Finally, the ambiguity of trying to decide whether or not to place this film in the Alien universe as a prequel really works against it. Certain aspects of it clearly place Prometheus in the same mythos, while some of the details are contradictory and confusing. I would have liked it far better if it had picked one way or the other, instead of the wishy-washy center.
Bottom line-Prometheus is no Alien, and really doesn’t live up to it’s advance billing. Not the worst film of the year, but I expected better of Ridley Scott.
Elektra Hammond
Buzzy Mag Editor & Reviewer
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