Prometheus
I came, I saw, I reviewed.
We went to see Prometheus in the theater on Sunday. The film has some very pretty cinematography - especially those long panoramic shots of stark Icelandic scenery - and the digital effects are nice. Michael Fassbender turns in a solid and creepy performance as the Peter O’Toole/T.E. Lawrence-obsessed android, David.
The rest of the cast, though, languishes in a story driven by externals, and extremely short on any kind of character development whatsoever. Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba are wasted in their roles… and why in the world the casting director chose to put Guy Pearce in old-age makeup instead of oh, maybe actually hiring an older actor for the role of at-death’s-door Peter Weyland, I don’t know. Perhaps there are scenes featuring a younger Weyland that didn’t make the final cut? Whatever the reason, I found the obviously faux-old Weyland distracted me from what was going on in his scenes.
The film does add to the Aliens mythos and fills in a bit of the early history, including Weyland Corporation’s continuing involvement. There’s spooky atmosphere and some scares, and a certain amount of action, though I’m not sure there’s enough action for action film fans, or enough gore and slime for the horror fans. To me the film felt chaotic and unfocused, not quite one thing or another.
I know this is getting a certain amount of fanboy love, but I'm not sure why. Quite honestly, I enjoyed all four Alien films, and even Alien vs. Predator, more than I did Prometheus*. They all had focused storylines, with fair-to-excellent character definition, and definitely knew what they wanted to be or say. Which is something I can’t say about Prometheus.
*And of course, it practically goes without saying that I didn't enjoy Prometheus as much as The Avengers, which I saw for the ninth time on 12 June. Practically.
We went to see Prometheus in the theater on Sunday. The film has some very pretty cinematography - especially those long panoramic shots of stark Icelandic scenery - and the digital effects are nice. Michael Fassbender turns in a solid and creepy performance as the Peter O’Toole/T.E. Lawrence-obsessed android, David.
The rest of the cast, though, languishes in a story driven by externals, and extremely short on any kind of character development whatsoever. Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba are wasted in their roles… and why in the world the casting director chose to put Guy Pearce in old-age makeup instead of oh, maybe actually hiring an older actor for the role of at-death’s-door Peter Weyland, I don’t know. Perhaps there are scenes featuring a younger Weyland that didn’t make the final cut? Whatever the reason, I found the obviously faux-old Weyland distracted me from what was going on in his scenes.
The film does add to the Aliens mythos and fills in a bit of the early history, including Weyland Corporation’s continuing involvement. There’s spooky atmosphere and some scares, and a certain amount of action, though I’m not sure there’s enough action for action film fans, or enough gore and slime for the horror fans. To me the film felt chaotic and unfocused, not quite one thing or another.
I know this is getting a certain amount of fanboy love, but I'm not sure why. Quite honestly, I enjoyed all four Alien films, and even Alien vs. Predator, more than I did Prometheus*. They all had focused storylines, with fair-to-excellent character definition, and definitely knew what they wanted to be or say. Which is something I can’t say about Prometheus.
*And of course, it practically goes without saying that I didn't enjoy Prometheus as much as The Avengers, which I saw for the ninth time on 12 June. Practically.