Prometheus: a mini-bite review
Safe to look at, no spoilers…
What is it? If you have to ask that question I’m presuming you’ve been living on LV426 the past 30-odd years…
What’s going on? Scientists, chasing down the origin of Mankind, discover ancient cave paintings on Earth offering directions to a distant world. On arrival, they find evidence of a mighty race brought down and distinctly unhealthy biological life forms (including worms very much like the ones I feed to the blue tits – I’m now expecting tits to start exploding in a puff of feathers…)
Was it worth the wait? In short; yes. What pleased me most was that Prometheus doesn’t pander to fan boy expectations. The ingredients for making an Alien film are all present for sure, but Prometheus stands on its own landing gear. Everything is slightly different. The story can go anywhere it wants without ever having to go near the original Alien again (but you know they will). That’s been done, let’s see where this takes us; dig? I especially liked the ‘B’-movie aesthetic, honestly, there are several moments in the film closer in tone to something like Forbidden World/ Inseminoid. Amongst the more serious and far-reaching ideas, Scott isn’t afraid to poke fun at the material. The ‘auto-Doc’ sequence for example – not entirely necessary to the plot but great fun nevertheless. You’ll also find a few nods to Aliens in here. Have the writers been watching the Ancient Aliens telly series? I dunno. But then, I’ve often wondered if we were seeded by a human-like race anyway, so my nose hasn’t been slapped out of joint like it has a few others. Fassbender is the stand-out performer, loved the Peter O’Toole thing David’s got going on. Rapace, I thought, grew stronger as the film progressed. Didn’t think much of her love interest though – weak presence. In keeping with the Alien dynamic, none of the crew is fleshed out but it doesn’t matter on the whole. Oh, Elba’s pretty good too, could’ve done with a bit more from him. Is Theron a robot? Ask Idris… (heh!)
Any disappointments? My main bone of contention is the trailer, the second one. No, I know I didn’t have to watch it, but I did. Consequently, sitting down as the film began I knew exactly what was going to happen with the ‘space-jockey’ ship, the how and why it crashes. That’s a large part of the finale; don’t put stuff like that in a trailer. Also, the very last sequence did feel like fan boy pandering, so I’ve contradicted myself! Not needed, even if it is part of the ‘auto-Doc’ arc. Strangely non-terrifying as well…
3D? Adequate. But if I’m honest, it neither adds nor detracts from the film-watching experience. I was sold a bum steer; I’m under the impression Prometheus was shot for ‘Real-D’, a process I did feel added an extra element to Avatar (though it looks just as good in 2D). I’m interested to know if there are ‘Real-D’ versions out there or whether I’ve just misunderstood the info. I’d have been just as happy watching a 2D IMAX presentation.
Anything else? Not the classic I was dreaming of; not the face-plant I was dreading. Yeh, I’m happy. Can’t wait for the blu-ray! In fact, I’ll probably go and watch Prometheus again – in 2D though…
Ciao, ThereWolf.
Barfy
kloipy
Echo the Bunnyman
Judge Droid
Jarv
ThereWolf
Xiphos0311
Why would you think we were “seeded by human like race” ? Also why would they have to be human like? That’s earthocentric thinking and speciest.
I don’t suppose they would have to be human-like; it’s just easier for my brain to accept our progenitors creating a race in their image, or very similar.
Can’t help being Earthcentric; it’s all I’ve got to go on!
Earthist
Earth for Earthlings!
Say NO to Alpha Centaurans!
But the real question is… Did Charlize get the baps out?
No baps, R2, sorry.
Near-nekkid press-ups, that’s all.
Damn! Well, at least the film’s okay.
How much was Bill Paxton missed?
The film manages to limp by without him…
Am always happy to remember him as ‘chickenshit outfit’.
“He’s comin’ in. I feel safer already…”
Or from the DC…
“Maybe we got ‘em demoralised.”
Good spoiler-free review There. I think the film is much better than we could have expected from this, and I can’t say it off first viewing, but I suspect its the best Ridley Scott movie in a really long time. I liked Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven DC, most of Robin Hood, A Good Year. Personally, I thought this was better than those. Look forward to seeing it again.
I
Hehehehe I finally see a decent Promethus tv spot using some creepy version of Twinkle Twinkle little star, come to find out that it’s from Dead Space. BAHAHAHAHAHA.
irony of course being that the creepy childlike singing of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is originaly from the 1997 trailers for Alien: Resurrection.
Round and round and round we go….
so, the real question. Was Thats My Boy as good or better than Jack and Jill?
I bet it doesn’t have anything as mesmerising as the Dunkachino.
Likely a safe bet.
you see Prometheus yet Droid?
What you guys don’t understand about That’s My Boy is that it’s a Sean Anders flick, not a Denny Dugs Joint, so it actually has some resemblance of style and editing.
Not yet. Probably tomorrow. We’ve got a 4 day weekend over here.
Oh is it? Heheheh serves me right for listening to you tube commentators.
Yeah That’s My Boy is Sandman’s funniest since Happy or Billy, granted you gotta not just fucking hate Sandler having a silly voice, if you hate that then yeah you’ll just fucking hate it to hate.
Also Alien 4 has the most bad ass trailer song of all time.
Heheheh jesus I’m very Jarv today because I was watching a bunch of Alien 4 trailers last week and I know what trailer you are talking about now. Man having a baby hasn’t slowed you down at all!
I was at fucking Dave and Busters last night and they got some trivia game and it just picks random categories and Film and TV came up and the question was: “Who starred in Freddy Vs. Jason” and then it listed three actresses….we were all like…ehhhhh???? And I was like fuck I know Echo would know this fucking useless movie trivia shit. That would be an interesting movie trivia game just on like smaller movies/flops. Because most movie trivia is very basic and only covers big/famous movies.
There was another question on there “Who was Bette Midler’s co-star in the Stepford Wives?” – matthew broderick, I got that one right.
Oh the answer to the FvJ question was Monica Keena….because we all know who she is.
Bart, Scott’s last great film is ‘Kingdom Of Heaven DC’ (and before that, ‘Black Hawk Down’). With ‘Prometheus’, I never felt like I was in the presence of a classic – just a sense of relief that it didn’t go horribly wrong and the ‘franchise’ has been ‘rescued’ from ignominy. I’ll have to see it again to form a clear view of where I’m placing ‘Prometheus’ – I’ll be more relaxed on the second go and able to concentrate on the film making.
I think a follow up does have the potential to be genre defining.
I really don’t like Alien Resurrection…
Im not over-the-moon on it. In fact, it isn’t in fact very good, but for whatever reason I don’t find it brain-numbingly bad. Part of me is probably reaching back to the theater experience I had with it, my dad and I in a mad post-Thanksgiving dinner rush to get the theater on time, nearly leveling the car, and getting in just in time for the Fox logo to come up. As we often do with these things, we just had a good time at the movies, glad to see Ripley, the queen, etc. But it was a wasted opportunity.
The thing is is the flaws are so readily apparent in it, and yet, when I watch it–it was a part of the Alien blu-ray package which is marvelous, I always have a decent time.
For a geek at the time it seemed promising–the guy from the Buffy show is writing it, the guy who did City of Lost Children is directing and he’s got Perlman and Wincott on board. And Sigourney is back.
Who would have thought it would result in a circus. Despite all that, I enjoy it. In fact, I’ve enjoyed all the proper Alien movies minus of course those two spin-offs we will not name.
I saw it at the cinema – special screening of all 4 four films. I remember it because a section of seats were roped off and couldn’t be used – then a group of people came in and the rumour was it was a rock band and their entourage. Never found out who, didn’t recognise anybody.
I also remember the dead silence after ‘Resurrection’ and how folk agreed that ’3′ had now improved immeasurably by comparison…
nice Wolf! I’m excited to see this one
Yeh, get in there, Kloipy, let me know what you think.
I haven’t forgotten your place, by the way – I’ll have some catching up to do…
yeah man, I’m really happy to read your review and going into it with that thought will help the experience I’m sure.
I posted a new short story I think you’ll like my friend
Good stuff – I’m looking forward to reading that!
Obviously, I wanted to say a LOT more about ‘Prometheus’, it’s torture reining meself in!
2 trailers at the start of this as well…
Dark Knight Rising (in 2D)… slightly more interested in that now.
The Hobbit (in 3D)… can’t say it’s doing anything for me at the minute.
Good job Wolfie, I have watched only one trailer so I think I have remained “pure” looking forward to seeing it.
Bats looks intriguing and get this Wolfie, it was filmed in our old friend Fred’s hometown! Pittsburgh, PA.
I miss Fred and Mavra and Chitty, I hope they all are enjoying life in the last big rodeo!
To absent friends!
Hey, maybe we’ll see Fred staggering about with the background extras, desperately hanging onto his mason jar while Bat-splosions kaboom around him…
Yeh, don’t watch any more ‘Prometheus’ trailers then. Hopefully you’ve only seen the first one.
Ha! I forgot about Fred’s mason jar! Damn. I am cracking up over here!
Mavra had her baseball bat! And she had a mean swing – i still have a dent in me skull!
Oh, BTW I forgot “AHHHHHHHH!!! There’s a Wolf walking and talking in daylight he must be hungry!!!!!!! Hide the women and rabbits! Head for the hills!!!” etc etc etc
Heh-heh…
Nah, you’re all safe as houses – I’m getting ready to go see ‘Iron Sky’!
Ok Wolfie, enjoy.
Question about the Hobbit, I hear it was filmed at 48 frames per sec, which supposedly makes it look very strange, Did you see that?
I was braced for that…
Nothing different. Looked like 24fps to my eye…
That’s good to know, i read that the long preview did not go over well and some complained that the picture quality looked too much like video and not film
I’ve just been reading up on it…
None of the ‘Hobbit’ trailers will be 48fps apparently. Worrying…
At least I know there’s nothing wrong with me eyes now.
Hmm, well I guess we have some frettin to do!
BTW the Spiderman trailer in front of MIB3 was without a doubt the longest trailer i have ever seen while at a theater. It was good, and I really do think they have captured spideys movements and speech patterns like never before under mopey tobey, but the extended ‘wow she/he is cute i must talk to her/him but i am such a fumble bunny’ scene with peter and gwen went on a tad bit too long for me, maybe teen girls will like it though
Can’t say I’m gagging to see another ‘Spidey’ pic…
Sounds okay to me, though I wish it was something more than just an entertaining flick.
I know what you mean, Pillow.
This is a great set-up, the next one could do the ‘something more’…
Hey, Wolf! Just got back from PROMETHEUS in the UK… Hmm. Not majorly excited by it, it certainly fell short of being the game-changer Von Daniken inspired epic he’s touting it to be, but it DID look absolutely gorgeous, the cinematography and production design were amazing, and Fassbender is excellent. The downside… Lindelof made the whole thing feel and sound like it had been written by an over-excited fanboy (I’m fairly sure in space travel they screen out the anti-social nutjobs and the smart-arses, mainly because getting on as a coherent unit matters a fair bit when you’re risking your lives in space) and there were some cringe-worthy and unbelievably obvious plot twists, but all that aside, it’s very watchable, mainly for the visualls. Noomi’s character is as far from Ripley as you can get (spending the last 40 mins of the movie doubling up in pain every few seconds? How is THAT Ripley-esque?), and Idris manages to make a decent role out of a one-dimensional caricature part, but overall, I was more unimpressed than impressed. Certainly a watchable movie, and definitely better than ALIEN3 or RESURRECTION, but far, far short of the glorious ALIENS or the lean, mean fright machine that was ALIEN. And will people PLEASE stop casting Rafe Spall in ANYTHING? That fucker is living proof that nepotism in acting is only ever a REALLY BAD THING. He’s fucking TERRIBLE.
God if you thinks that bad I just found out Kevin Smith stole my idea of a movie review tv show, fucker.
Too be fair, the only way my idea would work is if you have one single name on it, I mean Koutchboom is fairly well known in the back alleys of hollywood but not the right back alleys.
Listen, Koutch, I think Lindelof stole my idea for an ‘Alien’ film. After ’3′, coz I was angry about it, a mate of mine told me to write a better sequel. In the pub, I pitched him a story about archeologists unearthing an ‘egg silo’… Lindelof must’ve been behind us in that pub, the twat!
If I’m honest, though, that’s as far as my idea got. Couldn’t think of a way to bring Ripley, Hicks & Newt back…
I SWEAR ALL OUR SHIT IS TAPPED!
First Kaufman, then Smith. FUCK somehow I’ll have had come up with Avatar 4 at this point.
Though I asked my wife if she recalled my movie review show idea and she didn’t, I know I fucking told someone. Have to ask my dog see if he remembers anything.
Koutch, my mate is 1st AD on this show. He’s been bragging all over FB about it. I’ll be sure to tell him to tell Kev that you’re waiting for your cheques.
Nice one, Spud. Good to hear from you.
I’m hearing that a lot from people – expecting more than what they got. At the moment, I’m hedging on that being our fault, y’know, we’ve waited so long for Scott to come back with some sci-fi (‘Alien’ to boot) and it was just never going to measure up to what was in our heads.
I’m not as unimpressed as you were; there were things that disappointed me and I’ve held back on those because (a) folk ain’t seen it yet & (b) I want to see it again. But one of those disappointments involved your favourite actor, Mr. Spall – the scene where he and Sean Harris are in the chamber encountering a new life form… The tone of that, I felt, belonged in an ‘AvP’ movie, not this. It was an unwelcome ‘knowing’ tone, like – ‘ooooh, the audience know what’s coming but the characters don’t!’ Too much of a ‘Scream’ mentality.
Agreed on Idris, and yeh, I don’t know why Noomi has been billed as the ‘new Ripley’ but I can see how her character can be read that way – tough, resourceful, doesn’t give up…
I absolutely agree about that scene. Sean Harris’ character wouldn’t be allowed to stay in a South London pub without being thrown out, much less a trillion-dollar deep space expeditionary mission (I don’t care how great a geologist he’s meant to be, he’s far too anti-social to have ever made it past any screening process or psych evaluation), and that’s where it started to fall apart for me. Rafe Spall is just a blank space in the movie. I’d also agree that it’s a case of heightened expectations, but also that Sir Rid is bigging this movie to be the next level in film-making – on the Making Of show the other day, being interviewed by that odious twat Alex Zane, he was talking about how it’s a movie like nobody has ever seen before… Look, Rid, there’s a few lovely landscapes, but that’s IT. It’s a bog-standard “humans go in search of blah blah CONTACT blah blah now it’s an ALIEN reboot” movie, that looks absolutely beautiful, but has characters that do exactly what you expect them to do, in a script that’s constantly two steps behind the audience, with zero tension and some gloopy CGI effects where a next-level monster should be. Giger must be spitting fire at what they’ve done to some of his ideas in this flick. And while I didn’t hate the ending, it’s also very much a fanboy ending. I preferred the ending to the first ALIENS graphic novel back in 1990, truth be told. So, yeah, expecatations are high for a new Ridley Scott ALIEN movie, but mine were fairly low when I went in due to a number of negative reviews I’d read – and I came out feeling that Ridley sold me what he said was a Ferrari, but turned out to be a Ford Focus with a bodykit on it. All looks, nothing under the hood. It’s wathable, it’s well made, some GORGEOUS visuals, but ultimately, I couldn’t care less where the sequel(s) go – because ultimately, it’s all too predictable. Lindelof has laid some meh on the ALIEN franchise. What a tool…
Resurrection already did this. And Anderwank laid some “Actively awful” on the Alien Franchise. So it’s a step up from the 2 AvP films and miles below the original Alien? This is what we thought.
This also reminds me of when Bruce Willis was on every chat show in the Western hemisphere, telling us all that the fourth DIE HARD was the best movie since the first, when in fact it’s the worst, since it marked the point where John McClane revealed himself to be indestructible, and possibly from Krypton (how the fuck did he hang onto that Joint Strike Fighter or whateverthehellitwas if he wasn’t??). Fucking mess of a movie, turned into a fucking Superman movie at the end with all his leaping off freeways onto planes and shit. Bruce Willis needs a kick in the throat from a horse for peddling that substandard bullshit as something worth watching, and I sure as shit won’t believe a word he says about anything else he’s in from now on. And as for A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD? It’s a good day to FUCK OFF, Bruce, that’s what it is.
Die Hard 4 wasn’t awful, just not a die hard film. McClane needs to swear, get hurt, smoke, and so forth. That wasn’t John McClane.
I liked DH4, but you’re right, it’s not a DH film per se. But to be fair to it, it didn’t just blatantly ignore the conventions of the series. From the second film onwards, the franchise started getting farther and farther away from the original concept. The first film established the claustrophobic setting, and the outnumbered and outgunned hero with his back against the wall. The second film broadened the scope by having McClane venturing outside. Snowmobiles and whatnot. The third film was a long way from the original concept, but still held a lot of the familiar character traits. The fourth film was like the third, but because of the rating change they dropped a lot of what made the character. The swearing, the violence, the smoking. So it was, to me, a gradual progression away from what made it fairly unique, to the more generic action film of DH4. I guess that was the answer to McClane’s question on DH2. “How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice!?” Well, it can’t really. Not over and over again. But you do need to keep what makes the character interesting, entertaining and likeable.
That said, I really don’t hold out much hope for DH5.
Agree with all of that.
I’m also expecting to be kicked in the nuts and driven insane with Hatred by Nu-Dredd with added Karl Urban.
Still not feeling this film at all, and it’s partially because of those trailers- which you point one. Nice review though.
Ok, my mini review. I liked it, but the script was all over the place.
Still, very good looking, and some nice ideas in there. 7/10
7/10 – I’ll go along with that, Col.
Cheers, Jarv.
Yeh, the trailers, particularly the ‘international’ trailer – it’s plainly fucking obvious what happens. Why knowingly do that to your film?
All trailers should contain only scenes from the first two-thirds of the film. Stay the fuck away from the ending – it ruins the experience.
SPOILERS
I thought Rapace was good. Just because she’s “doubling over in pain” for the last section doesn’t automatically make her less determined, or resourceful than Ripley. Ripley didn’t experience what Rapace did, so that argument is a little flawed.
Who’s Rafe Spall? Is he that overacting twat with the glasses?
Prometheus would have been better if it wasn’t tied to the Alien universe. The fact that it had to work in elements of Alien really held it back. I would’ve much preferred Ridley have told that story with the freedom to create a new visual world. A lot of the Alien stuff felt tacked on. Particularly Fassbenders actions towards Rapace’s boyfriend, and the resolution of that subplot.
On Fassbender, he was good, but his character was magic exposition guy. The fact that he can work all the machines, speak the language etc. A very helpful construct that one.
Speaking of very helpful constructs. Wasn’t it just super helpful of the Engineers to create an entirely useless hologram CCTV system so that the audience can have all the exposition visualised for them. Surely that’s redundant if you have a magic robot who knows how to use all the alien technology.
SPOILERS
One more thing… Why can’t screenwriters foreshadow properly? The dialogue establishing the escape pod and the surgical unit is so clunkily obvious it’s almost painful. And why, if it’s a surgical unit in Charlize’s personal escape pod, is it only calibrated to males? It’s not because of Guy Pearce.
SPOILERS
Last complaint, I promise…
Now I realise that there are reasons/explanations/excuses both in film and out of film for this, but Prometheus has the same problem that the SW prequels had. All the tech looks far, far more advanced than it does in Alien. I do realise that the excuse is that the ship in Alien is just a clunky old mining ship, but still, it doesn’t explain away advances in equipment. The flight deck in particular really jars when you think that Alien is set 30 years later.
It’s another example of why Prometheus should never have tied itself to Alien. It’s a solid film overall and a lot of my complaints are based on its relationship to Alien.
Right, R2…
Rapace grew on me; didn’t like her at first, then she got stronger. She pulls off the strong, resourceful female without turning into a Ripley-clone.
Spall didn’t bother me as such – just the entire scene in the ‘ampule chamber’. Did not like the tone of that at all. Where’s the terror? You look around the cinema and no one is hiding behind their hands.
The thing with David is we see him learning the lingo at the beginning of the film. The character already appears to know more than he should. It’s possibly another mystery yet to be revealed; he’s already forearmed. I found that interesting more than irritating. I’ve got no problem with what David does to Rapace’s bf – Dave must be an ‘A2′ and as you know, the A2′s always were a bit twitchy…
Auto-Doc pod – It’s for Mr. Weyland. What makes you think it isn’t?
I’ve heard this a lot about the Prometheus being more advanced even though it’s set 30 years earlier. But you’ve answered it yourself; Nostromo – mining ship, no whistles & bells necessary. Prometheus – state of the art science vessel, no expense spared. I did notice a few of the corridors and rooms on the Prometheus do recall the Nostromo, the designers haven’t ignored it completely…
If Scott wants to, a follow-up film could leave ‘Alien’ behind entirely. It’s whether the studio will let him do that…
Visually stunning, but otherwise an empty movie. Some turrible writing really turrible when it comes to character motivations. Big ideas? Ha! John Carter had bigger ideas and was far more entertaining. This was Chariots of the Gods redux with Ridley even doing some Blade Runneresqe replicant/android baiting for the ‘boys out there .
I was never bored by this flick, because the visuals are indeed stunning, and it is not a bad way to waste a few hours but it is not a movie I plan to see again anytime soon.
The buzz going in was decent, but upon leaving it felt like the entire audience was deflated, and that had nothing to do with the alien tie in, it was simply that the movie disappointed by being stupid.
Yeh, ‘dawg, the writing wasn’t exceptional – but I wouldn’t say the film is empty. I do like the whole ‘Chariots’ angle.
The showing I was in, the audience was very quiet at the end. It was an early show though and the cinema wasn’t full. I read it as a thoughtful silence – you can usually tell if a crowd hates it and I wasn’t getting that off them. I myself really didn’t like the final scene and that knocked me off balance straight after – so I didn’t immediately respond to the film I had watched until a few minutes later.
I liked it ok but thought lots was left on the cutting room floor. There were Many too convenient things here Droid mentioned, most involving Lawrence there. But I am glad I saw it nonetheless. Coulda used Bill Paxton.