12/04/13 15:43
I finally got around to watching Prometheus via my Netflix DVD queue, which I recently resurrected. I'm going to start making a habit of recording my impressions of movies I've watched. If nothing else, for future reference.
Who doesn't like Ridley Scott? The guy's a legend. It feels wrong to critique his work, but that’s the whole idea right?
I had reasonably high expectations for the much-hyped Prometheus. When you strip away all the fluff, the key premise is quite interesting: Humans are just a genetic experiment, and somehow our creators decided to wipe us out. It's a really rich idea that could have gone far.
Unfortunately, there
is a lot of unnecessary fluff in Prometheus. Really clichéd stuff too. You have your space mercenaries, idealistic scientists, clueless scientists / Darwin award recipients, cold corporate mavens, soulless humanoid robots, zombified humans, high-tech, bio-tech, and more.
Perhaps this would be ok if Prometheus was meant to stand by itself, but we’ve already seen most of this movie before, from the same director.
A few specific gripes:
Ok, so David decides (or perhaps was ordered) to infect the scientists with the bio-agent mystery goo. Was it to find out its effects? Mere curiosity? If the goal was to get it back to earth, why not just store it and test it later?
Perhaps it was to see if the goo was safe for the old man. Well, if that's the case, perhaps he would have been more cautious after observing what happened to the good doctors.
The Scene: One of the scientists just knocked out two fellow mercenaries, and your boss goes MIA. Next thing you know, she tells you that you need to stop the ship at all costs. Naturally, your first instinct would be believe her without validation, and go crash your ship, right? Oh, and if you are the second and third mate, naturally you would prefer to go down with your ship/captain even when it's totally unnecessary.
I guess people get really restless after being in cryo-sleep for 2 years.
Meredith (Charlize Theron) was slowly building up to be an interesting character. Would she run things differently that mad ‘ol daddy? Would she show the aliens what corporate whoop-ass looks like? Too bad we'll never find out because it sucks to be rolled over by a giant alien spaceship.
which brings us to:
Look, it's 2013. We've all seen Independence Day multiple times. Big round ships crashing into bigger things was a cool thing 15 years ago.
I get it that directors have a secret, unwritten competition to outdo each other in the “crash big stuff” department. I also realize that it's part of the formula of every Sci-Fi movie (it ain't over until the alien spaceship blows up). But come on, we can do better right?
Prometheus could have been a great movie. It brought a couple of interesting ideas to the table. Unfortunately, it dangled those in front of us for a bit, then set them aside. And instead of a fine meal, we get redirected to the Old Country Buffet for reheated leftovers from yesteryear.
I suppose we can hope for better in Prometheus 2.
Related: Art.