
Prometheus
Directed by Ridley Scott
A prequel (YES it is! Stop arguing!) to the groundbreaking
1979 Sci-Fi Horror flick ALIEN?
Directed by the man himself, Ridley Scott? Oh, I am SO in!
A lone white skinned, buff, mostly human looking alien
“engineer” drinks some black alien goo and sacrifices himself, and in so doing
seeds prehistoric earth with the DNA that turns out to be the building blocks
of all life on earth. Fast forward to
our not so distant future of the late 2080’s where anthropologists Dr. Elizabeth
Shaw (Noomi Rapace), and her partner Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green)
discover pre-historic cave paintings that show what they believe to be an
Ancient Astronaut pointing towards a distant star system in what they believe
to be an invitation. But who are thee
Ancient Astronauts, and why did they leave these invitations? Well if you’re looking for answers, you’ll
have to look somewhere else because Prometheus provides none. Well, that’s not entirely true, but don’t
blame me if the answers the flick gives you are nothing but a colossal
disappointment.
![]() |
The spaceship Prometheus |
The Good. The
flick is shot with Red Epic Digital HD cameras and looks stunningly
beautiful. Of course it does, it’s a
Ridley Scott flick ferchissakes and the 1080p AVC encoded transfer on the
blu-ray is just about as close to flawless as makes no difference. The DTS-MA 7.1 Surround is also reference
quality and without a doubt one of the best sounding blus I’ve heard this year. All in all the technical presentation of Prometheus
is freaking excellent. The 4-Disc
Collector’s Edition Blu-ray contains heaps of special features including a
selection of deleted scenes, 2 audio commentaries, a nearly 4 hour documentary
on the making of Prometheus which honestly is better than the actual
film if truth be told, and the Weyland Corp Archives that includes production
galleries, featurettes and more.
The Bad. I
can’t find fault with either Charlize Theron, or Michael Fassbender’s
performances, the rest of the cast however really don’t hold up their end,
which is mostly the fault of the writers.
The film’s first act is actually not so bad either, it shows great
promise actually, which makes it almost difficult to believe what the mediocre
second act, and the profoundly disappointing third act brings us. We have characters who previously acted with
calm, logical, scientific detachment, and intelligence when dealing with the
unknown situations before them, suddenly acting stupid, and irrationally,
(Talking baby talk to and reaching out to pet a dangerous alien life form?
Hunkering down to rest in the very room you FLED earlier because the situation
seemed dangerous? Really?) and
seemingly trying very hard to get themselves killed, one even getting killed
for no reason other than just so in the end we can have Noomi’s character
basically repeat Sigourney Weaver’s line from the original ALIEN as the last
survivor of the Prometheus!
How many years were filmgoers waiting for Ridley Scott to
finally come back and direct another ALIEN film? Oh yeah that’s right it was 33 fracking
years, and what do we get for our patience?
A film that is only marginally (if that) better than the crappiest and
most maligned flick in the franchise: ALIEN RESURRECTION, and a film
nowhere near as good as the original ALIEN, a classic in its own
right. Was this Scott’s fault, maybe
partially, but I place the blame for the most part on the writers John Spaihts,
and Damon Lindelof, especially Lindelof who clearly didn’t want to make a Sci-Fi
Horror flick, rather a pretentious pop-philosophical flick with a bunch of ham
handed overtones of science vs. faith.
I can see what the writers were trying to do, which is just a nice way
of saying the failed epically.
![]() |
This is JUST a SPACE SUIT? Say not so! |
The Ugly. The
original ALIEN featured some of the most fantastic, original, and
mind-blowing designs ever put on film courtesy of Swiss surrealist H.R.
Giger. One of these designs, besides
the title creature itself, which sticks in my mind to this day, is the Space
Jockey. For those that don’t know, this
was the giant, dead alien the crew of the Nostromo find in the pilot’s
chair of the derelict spacecraft on LV-426.
I love this design even to this day.
I wanted to know where he came from, and what his story was. My colossal disappointment comes at 00:46:35
Dr. Shaw says “It’s not an exoskeleton, it looks like a helmet.” Sigh… the awesome, wicked-cool alien “Space
Jockey” turns out to be just a suit, and a hat for a giant human… another epic
fail if there ever was one. I mean come
on! What a freaking let down.
Final Thoughts.
I really wanted to like this film, I really did. Some of I liked a lot; the overall design
aesthetic was solid, the way the flick is shot is gorgeous, but like I seem to
say a helluva lot these days about films, design and effects a brilliant picture
do not make, you need a solid story and believable characters and Prometheus
has neither.
The Flick: 2 out of 5
Audio and Video Presentation: 5 out of 5
Extras: 5 out of 5
Comments