Before I get going here, let me admit I am a huge Ridley Scott fan.<\/p>\n
Blade Runner<\/em> is the gold standard for science fiction.\u00a0 Alien <\/em>is arguably better and blends sci-fi with horror better than anything else to date.\u00a0 The Duelists <\/em>is one of my all time favorite movies and is an unreal combination of a Napoleonic epic, an epilogue to A Tale of Two Cities<\/span>, Alexandre Dumas, and Bruce Lee.\u00a0 Kingdom of Heaven <\/em>(the director’s cut) is amazing and may be the only good medieval film ever made.\u00a0 Ridley’s even made arguably the best chick-flick ever in Thelma and Louise<\/em>.\u00a0 The guy has it.\u00a0 A miss by him would be a win by everyone else’s standard.<\/p>\n But that’s unfortunately what Prometheus <\/em>is; a miss.\u00a0 The film began life as a by-the-numbers Alien prequel that got sidelined when Fox started to develop Aliens vs Predator <\/em>(which the assholes completely fucked up; all they had to do was make the comic book into a movie and\u00a0they’d have made Avengers<\/em> money).\u00a0 None of this would be a problem except you can tell.\u00a0 The different direction the story takes (from Alien<\/em>) feels tacked on.\u00a0 The film wants to examine the nature of life on earth and life in general and it has compelling characters; but ultimately if falls short of its grand ambitions.<\/p>\n Most of the problem is that the middle of the movie doesn’t feel very well thought out.\u00a0 For instance, a scientist is lost in what appears to be a giant alien pyramid and encounters alien life.\u00a0 He sees what looks (and acts) like a eyeless king cobra rise from a puddle of black goo.\u00a0 What is his response to being confronted by the first alien life humanity has ever discovered?\u00a0 Well, he squats down and starts talking to it like it’s a toddler.\u00a0 What does he do when it bares large fangs and starts acting like a cobra does when its about to kill somebody?\u00a0 He inches into death range and continues cooing and tries to pet it.\u00a0 Damnit Archer!\u00a0 Its shit like that that reminds you, you are not watching a finished product.\u00a0 Though it looks spectacular, the lead actors give great performances, and there’s plenty of intelligent plot to go around; the film still contains an unacceptable amount of stupid.<\/p>\n What’s good?<\/p>\n Michael Fassbender is once again awesome.\u00a0 He’s a Bishop type android and he conveys a very amusing robot sense of not-quite-humor.\u00a0 Naomi Rapace is pretty freaking awesome as the lead scientist.\u00a0 She’s involved in some pretty gruesome self surgery that is the most disturbing and awesome thing in the movie.\u00a0 Idris Elba is pretty awesome as the seen-it-all pilot.\u00a0 Charlize Theron is also solid as the corporate oversight.\u00a0 Can’t knock any of the actors, they all brought their A stuff.<\/p>\n And the film looks amazing.\u00a0 There’s no debate there.\u00a0 The screenplay, however, is not worthy of the actors working it.\u00a0 Its like they knew what they wanted to start with and what they wanted to end with but just fucked the dog in the middle.\u00a0 And they supposedly spent years on the screenplay.\u00a0 Well, it needed a couple more.<\/p>\n All that said, you won’t be offended by the movie.\u00a0 It’s not awful by any means.\u00a0 And really, Naomi Rapace is always worth watching.\u00a0 And there are several scenes that have the stuff to be iconic.\u00a0 They’re just not roped together very well.<\/p>\n Verdict: meh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before I get going here, let me admit I am a huge Ridley Scott fan. Blade Runner is the gold standard for science fiction.\u00a0 Alien is arguably better and blends sci-fi with horror better than anything else to date.\u00a0 The … Continue reading