Take 2 Review: Prometheus

'Prometheus' is good on style, but muddled

By Art Ryan
NEWS Movie Critic


The first movie I ever rented on videocassette was the 1974 cult Sci-fi comedy, “Dark Star.” It was directed by John Carpenter who also co-wrote the script with the film’s star, Dan O’Bannon.  The film was a send up of the Stanley Kubrick classic, “2001: A Space Odyssey” complete with a talking bomb taking the place of  the HAL 9000 computer and a hilarious “beach- ball-with-claws” alien thrown in for good measure.

In 1979, O’Bannon’s ridiculous beach ball alien became the inspiration for a much more frightening movie monster in O’Bannon’s screenplay that year for “Alien”, starring Sigourney Weaver. “Alien” was directed by then newcomer, Ridley Scott who with only one previous film under his belt, had a lot to prove. Following blockbusters like “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters…”, the task was daunting, but Scott delivered a masterful film that blended both science fiction and horror in a way that hadn’t been seen before.

For me what made the original “Alien” film so appealing was the claustrophobic atmosphere that Scott and his fellow artist created that allowed us the audience to feel trapped onboard along side the film’s stars.
Let’s face it the original “Alien‘s” plotline was a simple survival story that was executed to mere perfection.

Although released to mixed critical reviews, the original “Alien” was a hit and spurned four sequels and countless imitations. Director Scott would go on to direct several films over the years including 1982’s “Blade Runner”, another milestone in the science fiction film genre.

So now over thirty years later Ridley Scott has teamed up with two of “Alien’s” original producers to bring us “Prometheus”, a prequel of sorts which after getting off to a promising start, ends up asking more questions then necessary about the original film’s origins.

Following an intriguing opening sequence showing a human-like alien life- form withering away off the coast of Scotland in the distant past, “Prometheus” then jumps to the year 2089 where archeologist discover identical star-maps drawn on the walls of caves of ancient civilizations. These maps will eventually lead a scientific vessel called Prometheus to a far away moon where the ship’s crew search for possible “engineers” of life on earth.

Weighty ideas to be sure, although not new to science fiction. Carl Sagan’s “Contact” covered similar territory brilliantly, minus the horror angle. “Prometheus” fairs well for about an hour until too many subplots and too many implausible twists and turns make a comprehensible outcome all but impossible.

What “Prometheus” does very well is deliver on look and style. Although the H.R. Giger drawings that inspired the original Alien look are far less prevalent here, the other-worldly look to the alien moon in “Prometheus” is nothing less than spectacular. The film’s visual style will hold your attention throughout despite the eventual rambling of its storyline.

By far the most interesting character that writers Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof have come up with for “Prometheus“, is an android named David. David, played with great charm and mystery by Michael Fassbender spends two years alone while journeying to the alien moon as his fellow crewmembers are in hibernation. He passes the time by studying Peter O’Toole’s performance in the film “Lawrence of Arabia”, and even colors and combs his hair in an attempt to appear more like Lawrence and in turn, more human. None of the other characters here are as well drawn as David or even come close to the stellar cast of characters made famous in the original film. This made me wonder what “Alien” creator Dan O’Bannon could have contributed this time around. Sadly, O’Bannon passed away in 2009 following a battle with Crohn’s disease.

But even Fassbender’s fun performance can’t save the muddled mess of the last 40 minutes. Even David starts doing things that don’t make sense for his character, and none of it gets explained. And with all due respect to director Scott, it’s a bit disingenuous after 30 years to make us sit through a long awaited prequel only to find out that we have to wait until the prequel’s sequel to get answers to questions the prequel should have answered in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong, “Prometheus” is worth the cost of admission, there are some genuine scares and a lot of eye popping visuals to keep it moving despite the muddled narrative. But once again as in most special effects driven movies these days, “Prometheus” unnecessarily has to throw every computer generated gimmick in at the end in hopes of making up for what it’s lacking in plotline.

After seeing “Prometheus” I couldn’t help but think of the now famous scene from the original “Alien’ where the first murder committed by the title character is shown mostly through the reaction of the on board cat, Jones. It was a daring move for a young director back in 1979, who trusted his instincts as well as his audience. I wish that young director was on hand this time around to bring a bit more originality coupled with simplicity that could have made this Alien outing as thrilling as it’s predecessor.

'Prometheus' dazzles but doesn't delight

By David Bjorkgren
NEWS Managing editor

   It’s a good thing the crew of the Prometheus doesn’t work for NASA.  This group of future space travelers would have easily washed out of the astronaut program.

   Not only do they not work well as a team, they don’t even follow the basic safety protocols that go with the dangers of space travel.  They land on an unknown world and sloppily expose themselves to all kinds of environmental and biological hazards. Guys this stupid deserve to be eaten by aliens.

   And that was just one of the implausible things I found in “Prometheus,” the latest offering in the 33-year “Alien” franchise.

   The film is striking visually. There are harsh alien worlds, cavernous spaceships, exotic-looking humanoids, a whole menagerie of morphing aliens ready to devour you in several disturbing ways  and some nice-looking future hardware (the mapping probes are pretty cool).  Credit has to go to director Ridley Scott, who directed the original “Alien,” along with the film “Bladerunner.”

   Kudos also to the filmmakers for examining two of humanities most profound questions, “Who made us?” and “Where do we come from?”  Exploring those ideas, coupled with all the eye candy, makes for a pretty interesting first hour or so.  If they had stuck with that, thrown in a little more eerie tension and given us a scary alien assault every once in a while, the film would have earned its rightful place in the “Alien” saga.

   The film revolves around an “ancient astronaut” moment when archaeologists discover a cave painting of a large humanoid pointing to a group of stars. This star map is discovered at several ancient sites and could point to the origin of humanity. The idea sparks the curiosity of Peter Weyland, founder of the Weyland Corporation. He funds a mission to follow the star map and seek out these aliens, now dubbed the “Engineers.”  It is the year 2093 and the science vessel “Prometheus” has arrived at a distant moon  from Earth to find some “Engineers.”

   On board are the archaeologist couple, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapaci) and Charlie Holloway, (Logan Marshall-Green) who discovered the star maps. The crew finds a structure on the planet and start exploring. They find an Engineer’s corpse and discover the Engineer DNA perfectly matches human DNA. Hmm.

   Of course, they go a little too far in their explorations and all kinds of nasty things, from tinny- tiny creatures in black goo, to a couple of snakes emerge, wreaking all kinds of unimaginable mayhem on the crew. How do these nasty things fit in with the Engineers? And what exactly is up with the Prometheus’ on-board android, David, (Michael Fassbender) who seems polite enough but does some fairly sinister things?  And maybe most importantly, where does Elizabeth Shaw get all of her stamina moments after performing major surgery on herself?

   It’s a couple of hours later, audience time, and we’re still not sure.
 
   Like so many films these days, the filmmakers overreached, then ran out of steam, money, or time.  There are multiple story teasers that take the film-goer down too many unanswered paths. Yea, I know, it’s a setup for the sequel, but confused audiences mean frustrated audiences, which can mean no audience.

   Shortcuts suddenly emerge that had me scratching my head, saying to myself, “now how did they jump to that conclusion so easily?”It’s as if someone said at one point, “OK, let’s wrap it up.”

   The film’s screenplay was penned by Jon Spaihts and  Damon Lindelof, executive producer of the TV series, “Lost,”  which would explain the confusing multiple storylines.

   Sadly, the original screenwriter for “Alien,” Dan O’Bannon, died in 2009. He did not envision the 1979  “Alien” as an epic film. It was a horror movie in space, O’Bannon’s scary follow up to the quirky space comedy “Dark Star.” It worked because the storyline was simple, using the same formula Steven Spielberg used in “Jaws”: Don’t show them the shark until you absolutely have to.”
The anticipation of a gross-out alien attack made “Alien” fun and scary. Throw in a great cast and some interesting characters (Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley holds up well as the never-say-die heroine), give us good sci-fi window dressing along with a sinister android and you’ve got yourself a movie.

   Aside from the sinister android and a lot of sci-fi, “Prometheus” doesn’t have too much in the way of interesting characters.  There’s plenty of gross-out alien scenes, but not enough scary foreshadowing to take you there.

   “Prometheus” tries to bring an epic feel to the “Alien” universe. It gets part of the way there. But audiences would have been better served if it had either gone all the way, or gone back to its simpler horror film roots.

   I give “Prometheus” seven-and-a-half slimy morphing aliens out of 10.