"Prometheus" (2012)

When the Universes’ Worst Scientists Meet Manufactured Death

"Prometheus" (2012) Review

Ridley Scott is by all means a fantastic director and producer as he has produced some of the finest films of the last thirty odd years including classics such as “Alien” (1979), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Thelma & Louise” (1991) and “Black Hawk Down” (2001) and, one of my favorites, “American Gangster” (2007) among many others. Yet not all of his films have been great. Remember “Kingdom of Heaven” (2005), another failed Orlando Bloom picture or “Robin Hood” (2010), Scott’s unbearable Russell Crowe picture? All this should be used as pretext to say that, as a critic, I love the work of Ridley Scott, yet sometimes have serious gripes with his works of “art”.

“Prometheus” (2012) is about as derivative as they come, combining elements of classic science fiction, horror, and thriller films into a very formulaic and disinteresting plot with fantastic visuals and 3D (I saw the film in 3D over the summer and could easily see myself purchasing a 3D television just to re-watch this film).

Beginning with one of our “engineers” seeming to commit some form of suicide to recreate his genetics in a river, the film starts off on a confusing note and does not let up until all the answers are thrown at the viewer like grenades. The film then takes on the very formulaic story of the science adventure story gone wrong with all the characters dying or living based on their introduction to the viewer. The story begins in earnest with archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), and her scientist boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discovering yet another clue, which they refer to as an invitation, to a planet from which they believe their creators came. So, apparently after a trillion dollar grant to make it happen from the Weyland Corporation, they are shot off to this planet some billions of miles away from earth along with an also cliché crew composed of the overly protective team leader Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), the sweet and insightful captain Janek (Idris Elba), and the untrustworthy robot David (Michael Fassbender). Together they form the worst group of scientists yet as they stumble upon what ends up being (and believe me this is not really a spoiler) a factory of death in the form of a black liquid. And once stumbling upon this they use some of the worst scientific research techniques ever such as taking their helmets off in an alien environment. From this point on the plot doesn’t really matter as anyone with sub human intelligence who’s seen any film whatsoever can predict nearly a mile away what exactly is going to happen and, based on the descriptions above, whomever the reader thinks is going to die based on this review, probably did. However, this cliché form of storytelling is not necessarily bad, and in some circumstances, such as this overtly corporate flick, is exactly what is called for. However, it was the overly pretentious tone of the film that made this plot all the more ridiculous. With supposed insights into the universe and the origins of man kind, the film’s deepest questions were best summarized by Elba’s character when after being asked, “but don’t you want to know what they have to say?” simply replies, “I don’t care,” a sentiment I’m almost certain was present in the hearts of every single paying moviegoer as the behemoth of a film entered the third and thankfully final act.

The acting in the film was virtually nonexistent as none of the characters had any semblance of reality in their makeup and rather seemed more machine than David. No individual actors were bad, yet none of the acting was phenomenal as none of the actors had any real purpose other than to recite lines, look scared, and provide corpses the screen writer could burn to keep the horrible plot ticking.

Overall, the most impressive aspect of the film was the CGI which showed a true leap forward from any use of graphics in a 3D film before this with dark and rich colors intermixed with phenomenal graphics that helped the audience cope with the lack of plot. The most amazing shots of the film were actually film within the film as holographic footage is projected over scenes and a fantastic view of the universe is spread out over the screen. In addition to this, the sound was amazing as every small trickle of water and every large boom could be heard clearly and crisply. The film’s visuals were so outstanding that the film would have been significantly better if the editors had chopped out massive amounts of supposedly plot building material (does someone really need to declare that they’re just “here for the money”?) and add in meaningless yet intriguing visuals.

Yet a film built on visuals alone is a diet of solely candy, and sometimes the viewer needs their vegetables. This film’s vegetables, in the form of limp and foul tasting plot and “character development” tasted weak and of bile forcing many viewers to consume as much of the CGI as possible without any consideration for their movie going health! And, despite a weak plot, this film could have done somewhat better or at least reduced the pretentious views on the origins of mankind to a minimum. I enjoyed this film, but found it was just junk food and at the end, a waste of time. But, as I said in the beginning, this film is one of many in a career of hits and misses and one should not write off Ridley Scott for one misstep but rather package it away deep toward the back of their mind and hold onto it for the next time they watch a Ridley Scott film.

Rated R for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language

Stars: 6.5/10