Last saturday I’ve watched „Prometheus“ (prequel to Alien) and at last I’m able to tell what it was that bothered me. Therefore I’m finally able to write this critique. To be honest, it’s a little bit unfair to Prometheus that I’ve watched the superb movie „The Dark Knight Rises„, spoiling me a little bit 🙂
Plot summary
Two young archaelogists (Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) discover in a hidden cave an ancient reference to a constellation. The same constellation is referenced by other ancient civilization, thus creating the theoriy that human life has been created by extraterristials. A research vessel (the Prometheus) is being send to the far system. In addition to the human crew, the opaque android David (Michael Fassbender) who appears to operate on a hidden agenda, is being fed with all kind of ancient languages therefore enabling him to translate relicts.
There’s a nice insider joke in the movie:
Review
For me, the movie lacks something and doesn’t fulfll it’s promises. Granted, it has got very impressive sets, effects and so on. Nevertheless, I’m not wholly satisified by it. On the one hand the hype did raise quite some expectations (contrary to „The Dark Knight Rises“, „Prometheus“ doesn’t deliver fully), on the other hand there’s something different amiss:
Alien was a superb horror movie (one of the best ever created), the sci-fi element was completely unimportant. Consider the premises of Alien transformed in the 18th century, instead of a god-forsaken planet a deserted castle haunted by a monster – would work perfectly.
Prometheus on the other hand is a quite conventional sci-fi flick – you could imagine it as a Star Trek-Episode (if you remove the gory parts). Alien’s horror element and claustrophoic atmosphere was nearly absent. The fact that the film didn’t provide many answers didn’t bother me at all.
There’s also one scene in the movie that was quite some plote hole (major spoiler!):
To cut a long story short: Quite entertaining, a small blockbuster, but not playing in the same league as „Alien“.
The Good Stuff
- Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw
- Michael Fassbenders convincing performance (convincing to the point of being creepy!) as the android David. David alone is worth the adminssion fee
- The interesting/original explantation of the Alien.
The Not-So-Good Stuff
- Some of Prometheus crew were not very convincing.. to shallow, too much cliché, and so on.
- What exactly was the point of telling us about
- 3D! This was my first 3D-movie, and I was not at all impressed – it didn’t look realistic to me (I find 2D movies much more realistic), and it was a constant nuisance having to wear two pairs of glasses.
