"Big things have small beginnings"

Hello Everyone :-)

I’m the first to hold my hands up and admit that I am easily influenced. Call me a ridiculous product of 21^st century consumerism (because that is what I am) but I am easily amused by well thought out marketing strategies, and recently there hasn’t been much bigger than the ad campaign for ‘Prometheus’. Add to that the fact that I’m massive fan of the first two Alien films (to which ‘Prometheus’ is a prequel, albeit a distantly related one) and you won’t be surprised to hear that I was super-excited about seeing it.

‘Prometheus’ follows Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), an archaeologist, who, along with her colleague and boyfriend Doctor Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), discover a series of cave paintings made by several unconnected ancient cultures, the paintings depict a large humanoid presence and the same series of spots in the sky. The two theorise that this is a ‘star map’ leading to the home of what they call the ‘Engineers’ or the creators of life on earth.
With the financial backing of Weyland Corporation the couple, with a number of Weyland employees, go on a two year voyage to moon LV-223, the location their ‘star map’ pointed them to. On arrival the team set out to “meet their maker” and they discover that it isn’t quite the utopia they imagined.

 Oh where to begin…

The first review of ‘Prometheus’ I read was by Mark Harrison whose opinion I trust more than anyone (including his quiff-tastic namesake). My Mad Prophet gave the film a right bashing to the point where I was so upset I considered not going to see it at all and thought I would rather live with my own expectations rather than watch the actual film. I only considered this briefly before I pulled myself together and told myself not to be so ridiculous.

We’ll start with the good.

Michael Fassbender is easily the most reliable man in working in the English-speaking movie industry today. Want a film stealing performance? Then hire him. He’s the best thing in ‘Prometheus’ by a country mile. He makes David fantastically ambiguous in his motives but also a sort of skewed-Pinocchio character, barely able to contain his loathing of his human counterparts yet clearly desperate to be accepted by them, longing to be a ‘Real Boy’.
I really liked Noomi Rapace as Shaw. If you ignore the fact that her accent is clearly ‘English by way of Sweden’ then it’s quite an impressive performance. Shaw goes through the mill in this film, in every way imaginable. Confident and fragile in equal measure, she digs into the same kind of grit that made audiences sit up and watch her in the original Millennium Trilogy films.
A nod should also go to Idris Elba as Captain Janek, the most human and likable member of the crew. Elba does his best with what he’s been given but is criminally underused.

 Aside from David, Shaw and to a certain extent Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron playing Corporate, ice-cold Bitch quite well), the rest of the characterization in the film is virtually non-existent. The other members of the cast are reduced to mere character stereotypes; the fool, the rebel, the brains; I forgot some character’s names. In any film (let alone a film that resides in the same universe as ‘Alien’) that kind of lazy writing is inexcusable.

Considering it was shot using 3D cameras (meaning the 3D should be better quality) I wasn’t massively impressed by it. I’ve been to see a handful of 3D films and am yet to be wow-ed by this extra dimension in my cinematic experience, be it ‘Real-D’, retro-fitted or otherwise. There were large sections of the film where I took the cumbersome glasses off and the image was unaltered, if anything it was improved because I wasn’t looking at it through the dark filter of 3D glasses. As far as I’m concerned, the sooner this fad dies a death the better.

However, even through the filter of that awful eye-wear, ‘Prometheus’ is beautiful. Many have said this before me and I’m sure many will after but no one builds worlds quite like Ridley Scott. The costumes, the landscapes, the cavernous rooms in the LV-223 base, the sterile cleanliness of the ship, you could take any frame and hang it in a gallery; it’s truly a visual work of art.

As you would expect in a film about finding out how we came to be there are ruminations on mortality, faith, morality; you name it it’s in there. It’s one thing to be a film with big ideas but ‘Prometheus’ smacks of writers throwing everything at a wall and seeing what sticks. This existentialism may not have been a problem had the film-makers decided to tie up some of their loose ends but they don’t, there are just too many unanswered questions for the audience to leave the cinema totally satisfied.

I could possibly live with all of that if the film gripped me in any way but it didn’t. There is no tension in ‘Prometheus’, it is completely devoid of a backbone. The film makers have neglected the stuff that made ‘Alien’ so great (the taut storytelling, the claustrophobic atmosphere, etc.) in favour of ostensibly grandiose ideas that fall apart on closer inspection.

Have you ever heard the expression ‘Hot Mess’? If you haven’t, it’s sometimes used to describe something or someone that’s gorgeous but a bit ridiculous. Well ‘Prometheus’ is a ‘Hot Mess’ of a film. It is undeniably attractive but ambitious and ambiguous to a fault, with too many half-baked musings scattered in its wake.
Granted there are some great set pieces, but for every amazing ‘medi-pod’ scene there is a downright ridiculous ‘exploding alien-head’ scene and I’m just not happy with a 50/50 hit to miss ratio in a film with this kind of heritage.
It’s not as big a failure as some would suggest, but having been hyped as much as it has, it’s hard to be anything other than disappointed.

I think I need a bit of cheering up after that so it’s a good job I’ve got some…

 Reasons to be cheerful :-)

1. Four Words. ‘Monster University Teaser Trailer’ :-)

2. OMFG there’s going to be a Fraggle Rock film! EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! It’s not due out till 2015 but I’m excited already :-)

3. Well isn’t this a kid-tastic edition of ‘RTBC’?!?!The teaser trailer for ‘Wreck-it-Ralph’ is out! I wasn't too fussed for this before now but I really like the look of it!

That’s it for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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