Prometheus

Prometheus – there’s a lot of debate surrounding Ridley Scott’s prequel to Alien, mostly about the myriad of unanswered questions raised in film. Personally I found the film a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t read any reviews before going to see it and went purely on the strength of the trailers and memory of really enjoying Alien. I expected the film to be visually good – and it was. We went to see it in Imax and 3D at the BFI. It was stunning – a bit too stunning in our seats! My disappointment came in the storyline and lack of characterisation.

What some have seen as unanswered questions, I saw as plot holes and as for the characters and their motives (or lack thereof), well I didn’t care much for any of them. Also the editing and continuity in places was very poor. I expected more from Ridley Scott, as the director of one of my all-time favourite films, Blade Runner.

So what’s it all about? In a nutshell 2 archaeologists, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) & her husband, Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), discover a series of depictions of what they have interpreted as a star map inviting us to meet an alien species they call the Engineers, who Shaw believes are our creators. The fact that they are archaeologists is enough to put me off of them to start and as the film went on I liked them even less. why archaeologists make me annoyed

With apparently no other evidence, only Shaw’s belief, mega-rich Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) funds an expedition. His motive is clear – he’s dying and is looking to extend his life. As for the rest of the team and crew, as they appear to have no idea why they are going or what they will find when they get there, I guess they are just being very well paid.


beware of androids

So they arrive and start to explore. And very soon things go wrong. In part due to the android, David (Michael Fassbender), who has been alone on the ship for over 2 years while everyone else has been in stasis, watching Lawrence of Arabia, spying on the human’s dreams and possibly going ever so slightly bonkers. David is responsible for Holloway’s demise (no loss there) and the introduction of an alien parasite to Shaw’s barren womb. The latter giving rise to a very unpleasant scene which made me wonder at the 15 certification.

Well things go from bad to worse and all but 2 characters are dead by the end. Although our annihilation by those that Shaw believed created us has been prevented by 3 characters sacrificing themselves for no apparent reason than they believe what Shaw tells them!

Shaw is the most annoying character; a bad scientist and worst of all, a female lead who’s no Ripley. I just couldn’t take her seriously and in no way could believe in her as a saviour. I wanted her to kick some alien ass. Shaw couldn’t kick her way out of a wet paper bag. Now Vickers (Charlize Theron), icy cold and at one point accused of being a robot by Janek (the under-used Idris Elba), you could imagine kicking ass. It would have been a better film to make the Vickers character step up.



that's the way to do it

And as for all the debates about who the Engineers were, why they did what they did, why they planned to go whatever it was that they were going to – well David supplied the best answer in conversation with Holloway about the engineer’s motive for creating us; have we considered they did it just because they can.

I think that’s why Ridley Scott made the film, just because he could.