I just saw it today. Honestly, I don't understand the vitriol with which the movie seems to have been received. I thought it was a gorgeous, thought-provoking film.
I've read a lot of negative reviews that say the movie leaves too many questions unanswered (although, personally, I thought it did a good job of answering a few big ones that have been circulating since the first movie in 1979). The real irony is, I've also read plenty of the same negative reviews complaining that Ridley Scott is threatening to take all the mystique out of the franchise by exploring the origins of the xenomorphs in the first place. My answer is this: It's pretty obvious Scott has set up the plotline for a sequel. Until then, just take the movie for what it is, and enjoy coming up with your own explanations for the questions it left open. Isn't that kind of what made the franchise so intriguing to begin with?
If you have yet to see the movie and plan on doing so, my advice would be, check all your expectations at the door. Don't go into the movie wanting Alien, Episode Zero. There are definitely nods to Alien and its sequels-- the most pivotal of which is the "space jockey" from the original film. But Prometheus is very much its own movie in more ways than it isn't.
I keep hearing that the character development and dialogue were weak. I agree, they aren't on par with Scott's first film or Cameron's sequel. And perhaps audiences these days are a bit jaded, because a lot of us (like myself) have seen those two films over and over and over, and we're intimately familiar with the formula already. Crew goes into space, makes a discovery, tempts forces beyond their comprehension, and as a result, all hell breaks loose. And meanwhile, the company has someone within the group covertly carrying out its agenda. Yeah, alright. It's cliché. But I don't exactly understand why people are faulting Prometheus for that, when the whole Alien franchise has pretty much repeated that formula. At least Prometheus introduced some brand new elements into the mix with the Engineers.
As far as acting, I don't have much else to add to what has been said already. I thought Rapace and Theron both handled their roles respectably, and Fassbender's portrayal of the synthetic David was easily of the same quality as Ian Holm's Ash and Lance Henriksen's Bishop. Visually, the movie was impressive (particularly in IMAX 3D), and I was really ecstatic to see some new H.R. Giger designs.
If/when Ridley Scott comes up with another installment, I'm sure it will delve deeper into explaining the way that this movie connects to the events of the Alien series. In addition to finishing the sentence that Prometheus began, I personally hope it will show much more of the development of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, since that does seem to be the real thing that drives the storyline of the entire arc.
_________________
Mediocrity is a petty vice; aspiring to it is a grievous sin.
12 Jun 2012, 8:38 am
