I already accepted Prometheus wasn't going to be a modern classic walking into the theater. After reading a couple reviews (making sure I didn't stumble upon on any major spoilers), it was evident that Alien is an untouchable composition in the annals of Sci-Fi. But I still wanted it to be decent. I wanted Prometheus to be a solid effort with a decent script and a few memorable characters. But it wasn't. It just wasn't.
I'll start off with what I liked. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender are so good at what they do and they were allowed to show a little bit of that during the course of this film. Noomi was taken right to the point of desperation and she approached it with such an honest sense of strength. And Fassbender has quickly become one of my favorite actors exhibiting unbelievable professionalism and poise. Watching him play an android with a hidden agenda was mildly disturbing, which is exactly what it was meant to be.
The actual beauty of the film shouldn't be overlooked either. I gratefully tip my hat to the set designers and CG artists who were involved in this effort. All the environments were stunning and fully engrossing. I never doubted any of the sets for a second; all of it was believable. And I am proud to admit that CG presentation as a whole is getting damn close to reality. It was only a matter of time before technology gave the willing artist the ability to create a believable environment on a computer screen, but that day is here.
But the flaws... finally I get to the point where I can blow off a little steam... For anyone that doesn't know, the point of this film was to explain the brief encounter with a technologically advanced humanoid being featured in the original Alien film known by the people involved as an "architect." In Prometheus, the architects are said to be the origin of life on earth. They came to earth and created us. Keep in mind that the premise doesn't include any other life on the planet. So instead of embracing the theory of evolution, the film says, "Oh yeah, humans aren't a result of evolution, we were engineered by this other race of humans and put here." WHAT?! Why at this point in our society would the writers of this film decide to throw evolution in the trash?!
But accept that for a moment, while I give another spoiler. The architects are bad guys!? Why?!!!! Why would you make the an ultra-advanced humanoid being a violent warrior?! That doesn't make any sense... To achieve limitless innovation to the extent of intergalactic travel a society would have figured out a solution to violent behavior. Technology isn't the only thing that advances. Every part of a society evolves, including how to deal with one another. Violence obviously isn't an intelligent solution to ANYTHING! But, oh well, the architects gave us life and for some unknown reason (follow me here), they set up a military installation on a distant moon and developed biological weapons with the purpose of returning to earth and wiping us out.... WHAT?! I know, I know, that's the mystery, that's the unexplained that Noomi wants explained, but that doesn't make it any less stupid.
I can see how you'd think that I'm being too critical about that, but just listen for a second. Sci-Fi is all about viewing reality from a perspective that doesn't exist yet. It's about imagining a place in time that is so far removed from current events that each journey into the unknown is an opportunity to introduce an entirely new way of thinking and feeling. What the writers did with Prometheus was to view the future through our violent, short-sighted eyes. We know violence already, we know war and we know how dumb and primitive it is. We know what bashing people over the head with heavy things looks like. I want to know something else. And this film failed to show me a single perspective that was at all futuristic.
Now let's take a second to discuss the characters other than those skillfully executed by Rapace and Fassbender. Uhhh ummmm... oh sorry, I FORGOT THEM. Seriously Ridley... You used to be really good at that; giving a character some heart, some fragility, some god damn humanity. But I guess you forgot. There was one moment that is absolutely unforgivable. Near the end when the ship captain makes the decision to destroy the architect's ship by ramming theirs into it... The two supporting characters just sort of say, "Alright, gotta die sometime..." WHAT?! I get that it's cool to go out in a big way, but to not give a second thought to instantly committing suicide. They literally just threw their arms in the air and embraced it, not really understanding at all that the human race could have been in danger. It took them about 5 seconds to decide it was alright to die. They even ended the scene saying, "I'll see you on the other side buddy." FUCK.
Oh, and one more detail before I close. When you find an alien's head, your first reaction shouldn't be to shove an electrode into it and bring it back to life without a single ounce of preparation or precaution. That shit just wouldn't happen. And to make the head explode afterward... Where the fuck is Michael Bay... I know he's here somewhere.
Overall this was a pretty film with a couple great actors in it. That doesn't nearly make up for how shallow it is, how many disposable characters there were, how little they felt when their life was at risk, or how blindingly dumb the conflicts were that endangered their lives to being with.
1/5
2 comments:
Scathing Review of a Review:
No, it wasn't a perfect movie. It raised more questions than it was purportedly written to answer, but it was not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. Sci-fi holds a much broader definition today than you seem to allow it in your review. Not only is it "about viewing reality from a perspective that doesn't exist yet." It's about a reality that might not ever exist. It's based on science and it's allowed to roam free from there and while sometimes this yields nothing, sometimes it inspires incredible scientific innovation. Don't you dare take away science fictions imagination just because you're stuck in what you feel is modern society’s popular opinion.
You say, "To achieve limitless innovation to the extent of intergalactic travel a society would have figured out a solution to violent behavior." This is purely your own opinion based on your own extrapolation and intangibles. Furthermore, you miss the central theme of the movie which is displaying the vicious cycle of humanity; the sins of the father. We are reflected in the Architects. We are the “violent warrior.” This theme is then, again, reflected in the xenomorphs. Instead of looking out into the future this movie is taking a faraway perspective to look back on ourselves. Again you’re guilty of attempting to limit what sci-fi is allowed to do. You say you want to, "know something else." You're watching science FICTION not science fact. Go rent a documentary.
I'm not sure what you mean by "raised more questions than it was purportedly written to answer." The only question that was obviously raised was, "Why were the architects on a mission to destroy earth?" If you can list others I'd be interested to know.
As for my comment "sci-fi is about viewing reality from a perspective that doesn't exist yet." Yet is somewhat of a soft term in this context since no one can predict the future. I think you missed my point there though. You're saying that I'm limiting myself by assuming that sci-fi should show me something new, but I don't understand why that would be a limit. I'm expecting sci-fi writers to be creative and original. Violence is primitive, there's no getting around that. So turning this into basically a war movie is somewhat of a loss for me because we've already covered that in countless other films.
As for your criticism of my perception of the evolution of society. I admit that this may be a limitation, but it's a symbol of my hopefulness that eventually human beings won't have to depend so much on violence. I've always thought that for a society to thrive killing must be at a minimum. So with time I expect technology to advance to give us greater opportunities to thrive, and for us to figure out how to quit killing each other. Extrapolating that to the architects I would hope that if they decided it was right to end our civilization there are easier ways than to introduce a pathogen that would turn us into homicidal zombies and watch as we tear each other to bits. It was clear that this is a plot device that yields a couple good action sequences. Action puts us in the seats, but it doesn't provoke us to think.
And the theme is completely different when applied to the xenomorphs. They were introduced in the first Alien film as an extremely primitive life form. They are violent, predatory, and have no ability to create technology. They actually rely on killing other life forms as a form of reproduction. So it makes perfect sense for them to kill. It doesn't make any sense for us to want to kill, and it doesn't make any sense for the architects to want to kill. If you can give a logical reason to kill a human being (other than to prevent subsequent killing) I'd be interested in hearing that as well.
Overall it seems like you want to give ol' Ridley a break, but I'm not sure why. Alien was a classic so fans expected his return to sci-fi to yield a classic, but this is far from it, and I as a fan was disappointed.
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