Anyone expecting another Xenomorph-fest imagined by Ridley Scott will be disappointed by the lack of alien on man action as there isn’t one in sight, mostly. This is more of thought process regarding faith and how we come to be, with a typical space exploration gone wrong body count added on for good measure.
Prometheus feels more like a distant cousin of the 1979 trendsetter than a prequel. We have familiar traits which somehow fall short in what fans would have expected from another addition to the alien franchise. Noomi Rapace does her best to imitate the quiet, calculating role played by Sigourney Weaver in the original, but her Shaw is no Ripley as much as Scott wants us to root for her. She reveals that she can’t have kids, five minutes later she discovers she pregnant, five minutes after that she is ready to abort. Scott moves too quickly for us to care enough. Rapace’s on screen partner Holloway (played by Logan Marshall Green) suffers a similar lack of apathy as his character suddenly turns from a carefree scientist full of vigour into a dour boozehound in a matter of scenes. Again little explanation is given for his shift in character.
Charlize Theron tries her best to chill as the cold-blooded company woman, but being as attractive as she is, I never believed her to be a ice cold reptilian corporate screw. Although Scott does reverse her character in some way when she demands that no alien should be brought aboard her ship (have you ever heard a Weyland employee act like that before?)
Michael Fassbender does an impressive turn as the Peter O’Toole obsessed Android, David even if his intentions are somewhat convoluted by the end. Is his good, is he bad? I didn’t care. Scott knows that we as an audience know that sometimes Androids, more often than not, go doolally flip. But it’s become a tired formula in the Alien universe. How about we just have one as a productive member of the crew instead of exploring their artificial soul again, eh?
Idris Elba pops up to take his turn as the burly black guy we’ve already seen several times already in the franchise. ‘I’m black, I chew a cigar, but I’m also lovably gruff’ (not actual quote). For a quality talent such as his, he seems to be left on the bench a little during the action. This seems to be common occurrence throughout the film; too many characters to follow, and not enough depth to care.
Rafe Spall and Sean Green have a promising start as a goofy biologist and a punk geologist, and it would have worked well with them sparring off as a comedy double act to bring a little light relief, but Scott, for some strange reason offs his two most interesting characters straight away, leaving us to suffer with identikit clones of characters we already know.
Good things about Prometheus would be its look. The ship itself is beautiful, everything about it says opulence, with no expense spared, and the real life sets make a difference giving it a little more warmth and reality. But it by the end it all seems a bit redundant. I feel that the movie would have worked better if it wasn’t set in the Alien universe, if it had been independent of the entire franchise. I did expect at one point that the Predators would suddenly turn up and offer a cleanup of the entire mess.
Whilst the original was a grimy pot-boiler with minimal characters and one alien set in essentially what was a vast, dark basement, Aliens upped the ante had many characters against many creatures engaged in corridor wars. Alien 3 harked back to the original somewhat with claustrophobic conditions but less of an arsenal in which to fight the extra-terrestrial enemy. Don’t even get me started on Resurrection . . . The best way forward with the alien franchise would be an all out war. All new characters, just stick with the trusted formula of Colonial Marine against a massive hive of Xenomorphs. A Saving Private Ryan sort of movie, but with face huggers instead of land mines and alien queens instead of tanks. The only way forward with the story would to go epic, not sideward glances at other possible happenings.
Even though it all seems a pet project of Scott’s, it’s still nice to see another effort in the Alien franchise, even if it is a galactic sidestep away from everything we already know. Whilst it brings us a few answers regarding the origin of our favourite Xenomorphs, it seems dig up more questions regarding their makers. All in all, Prometheus comes across as discovering a previously unseen photo of an old friend, on a day you wasn’t around to enjoy what was going on.
Reviewed by Nathan Robinson
Prometheus feels more like a distant cousin of the 1979 trendsetter than a prequel. We have familiar traits which somehow fall short in what fans would have expected from another addition to the alien franchise. Noomi Rapace does her best to imitate the quiet, calculating role played by Sigourney Weaver in the original, but her Shaw is no Ripley as much as Scott wants us to root for her. She reveals that she can’t have kids, five minutes later she discovers she pregnant, five minutes after that she is ready to abort. Scott moves too quickly for us to care enough. Rapace’s on screen partner Holloway (played by Logan Marshall Green) suffers a similar lack of apathy as his character suddenly turns from a carefree scientist full of vigour into a dour boozehound in a matter of scenes. Again little explanation is given for his shift in character.
Charlize Theron tries her best to chill as the cold-blooded company woman, but being as attractive as she is, I never believed her to be a ice cold reptilian corporate screw. Although Scott does reverse her character in some way when she demands that no alien should be brought aboard her ship (have you ever heard a Weyland employee act like that before?)
Michael Fassbender does an impressive turn as the Peter O’Toole obsessed Android, David even if his intentions are somewhat convoluted by the end. Is his good, is he bad? I didn’t care. Scott knows that we as an audience know that sometimes Androids, more often than not, go doolally flip. But it’s become a tired formula in the Alien universe. How about we just have one as a productive member of the crew instead of exploring their artificial soul again, eh?
Idris Elba pops up to take his turn as the burly black guy we’ve already seen several times already in the franchise. ‘I’m black, I chew a cigar, but I’m also lovably gruff’ (not actual quote). For a quality talent such as his, he seems to be left on the bench a little during the action. This seems to be common occurrence throughout the film; too many characters to follow, and not enough depth to care.
Rafe Spall and Sean Green have a promising start as a goofy biologist and a punk geologist, and it would have worked well with them sparring off as a comedy double act to bring a little light relief, but Scott, for some strange reason offs his two most interesting characters straight away, leaving us to suffer with identikit clones of characters we already know.
Good things about Prometheus would be its look. The ship itself is beautiful, everything about it says opulence, with no expense spared, and the real life sets make a difference giving it a little more warmth and reality. But it by the end it all seems a bit redundant. I feel that the movie would have worked better if it wasn’t set in the Alien universe, if it had been independent of the entire franchise. I did expect at one point that the Predators would suddenly turn up and offer a cleanup of the entire mess.
Whilst the original was a grimy pot-boiler with minimal characters and one alien set in essentially what was a vast, dark basement, Aliens upped the ante had many characters against many creatures engaged in corridor wars. Alien 3 harked back to the original somewhat with claustrophobic conditions but less of an arsenal in which to fight the extra-terrestrial enemy. Don’t even get me started on Resurrection . . . The best way forward with the alien franchise would be an all out war. All new characters, just stick with the trusted formula of Colonial Marine against a massive hive of Xenomorphs. A Saving Private Ryan sort of movie, but with face huggers instead of land mines and alien queens instead of tanks. The only way forward with the story would to go epic, not sideward glances at other possible happenings.
Even though it all seems a pet project of Scott’s, it’s still nice to see another effort in the Alien franchise, even if it is a galactic sidestep away from everything we already know. Whilst it brings us a few answers regarding the origin of our favourite Xenomorphs, it seems dig up more questions regarding their makers. All in all, Prometheus comes across as discovering a previously unseen photo of an old friend, on a day you wasn’t around to enjoy what was going on.
Reviewed by Nathan Robinson
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