The Case for Fallen Gods

A warning: while I try not to be a spoiler of these things, some for this movie may pop up.



A wee while ago, there was a film by Ridley Scott called Alien.  It was dark, broody and had a kickarse heroine.  James Cameron came along a few years later and made an explosive, site-nuking sequel.  And what followed has been a whole raft of movies that followed the adventures of Ripley (the merits of which are much debated) and then a few “prequels” that placed the condom-craniumed aliens on earth battling it out with different alien predators.

With Prometheus, Scott has come back to the Alien party, and he has decided to focus on a different aspect of the story: where did the spaceship upon which the alien was originally found come from?  And, 30 years after his original movie, he now has an amazing array of special effects and talented actors and technicians to bring the story together.


And so the film looks incredible.  The ship upon which our intrepid explorers find themselves is less industrial pipes, loose chains and dripping ventilations shafts, as, while we never see a cleaning crew, the shop is spotless, packed with the latest whizz-banging technology (though some of it is for boys only), including an artificial person that no one really seems surprised about.

I have to say that I found that one of the most jarring aspects of the film.  While Prometheus obviously bases itself on the original Alien movie, there are some parts of it that really don’t seem to gel with the world the other films created, and, as a person who enjoys continuity in these sorts of things, I found some of the liberties taken a little hard to swallow.  And then, there are other things that relly just didn’t make a lot of sense to me.


Besides the casual acceptance of the android, the fact this exploration of a far off world takes place at all, with no follow up, is the most bizarre continuity issue, especially considering the fairly high profile people aboard.  Similarly, Weyland has yet to merge with Yutani, but company men and women are still calculating capitalist swine aware of the bottom line but apparently not aware that underlings should be sacrificed rather than top brass.  I was also a little surprised when alien holographic security camera footage comes out of nowhere and is highly selective (and fortuitous) in what it shows.  


There are other convenient discoveries and more obvious story developments that likewise left me a little cold.  Speaking of cold, Charlize Theron’s ice queen corporate cow is completely awesome (even if she can only run in straight lines – “turn left!!”), but, like most of the cast, including the awesome Ildris Elba, is mostly wasted.  I am a fan of Michael Fassbender, which is good, as his character David seems to dominate the entire film (more so than Noomi Rapace’s Dr Elizabeth Shaw, whom I believe is meant to be the star of the film) although I was a little unsettled that he played David as a morally ambiguous blond version of Star Trek: the Next Generation’s Data.

I suppose, considering what I brought to the film with me, I was really unable to look at the film with fresh eyes.  I did appreciate the incredible effort and expense in the whole look of the film (thanks Weta!) and the cast, while underutilised, is an incredible assembly of acting talent (was that really Guy Pearce in there?  I am sure he has aged better than that).  However, for me, the expectations of the Aliens universe that I brought with me, and my own natural cynicism when it comes to some of the plot contrivances when considering alien psychology (would they really give directions to a place that they rarely use, akin to some in Wellington asking a pen pal from Australia to meet them to perhaps one day pop along and see them on Christmas Island?) left me feeling a little underwhelmed by the film.  


Prometheus seems more a step back than a step forward, cruising on the laurels of the original Alien movie, upping the number and type of creatures while subtracting a lot of the tension and atmosphere.  I will be interested to read what others think about the film, as it might just be me who was a little underwhelmed by it all, though I did appreciate a lot of what I saw nonetheless.


Verdict: Prometheus came burdened with a lot of expectations, and I had kind of hoped those expectations would have made for a tighter, more well thought out movie.  Instead, I thought Prometheus was a beautiful looking film, with a great cast nodding in the direction of the original Alien movies, but more often than not pointing in its own direction, one that I was not convinced that I wanted to go.  6 flamethrowers out of 10.