Prometheus (2012) · Posted June 17, 2012
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Damon Lindelof and Jon Spaihts
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Patrick Wilson, and Logan Marshall-Green
Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is a film with a lot of fantastic ideas that have almost no room to breathe. It’s a prequel of sorts in terms of expanding on the mythology of the Alien films, and it also tells a gruesome and harrowing origin story that could have worked if we cared about any of the characters aboard the ship from which the film gets its title. The movie is teeming with actors we love and characters we want to explore, but the alternative agenda at hand (telling the aforementioned origin story) seems to always take precedence. This gives everything a very forced, manipulative feel, because it never seems as though the story or characters are developing organically. There’s a captain, a couple of scientists, a resident thrill-seeker, and a commerce-minded authority figure. There’s also a fascinating nonhuman character names David (played brilliantly by Michael Fassbender) who injects a Cylon-esque chill into all of his scenes. Those two sentences I just wrote basically sum up all the exposition we’re provided in the film as to who these people are. There are some dream sequences and awkwardly placed conversations here and there, but overall it’s kind of inexcusable how little we learn about this clearly intelligent, interesting crew.
I think what happened here was that Lindelof, Scott and co. had to cut back on what was originally a much longer story that would have worked perfectly as a miniseries or a TV show. The level of detail present in the visual conception of the creatures, ships, and settings as well as the obvious eagerness of the actors to truly embody these people have me convinced that this was all supposed to be bigger. What we’re left with is a jumbled mess of random moments and seemingly senseless revelations that don’t pack the dramatic or emotional punch they should. Other problems include plot holes that seem as though they could have been easily sidestepped as well as consistent behavior from almost every character that seems to be a result of nothing more than rushed storytelling. Ridley Scott is clearly still the visionary director that gave us incredible films like Alien and Blade Runner, but a format shift may be required to lend his ideas the gravity and flexibility they need to truly resonate with an audience.
As it stands, Prometheus is loud, confusing, and frustrating in how it seems to actively refuse to live up to its potential. An extended director’s cut would serve it well, and I’m almost certain that one is already in the works.
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