A post-modern Prometheus

This is my review of the film Prometheus, which I just now got home from seeing. In case you were wondering.

First, my bona fides, for those who don't know. I'm not a fan of the film Alien. No, with me it goes way beyond that. I've been obsessed with it, since it came out in 1979. The following films in the series? Not so much. But I consider Alien to be the greatest film ever made.

So, needless to say, when I found out Ridley Scott was directing this sort-of prequel to his greatest film, I was excited about it. I've never followed a film so closely before, searching for articles and tidbits and spoilers online, pictures, trailers,, all that stuff.

To get this business out of the way, was I disappointed? Needless to say, my expectations were through the roof. Were they met?

Yes. They were.

But I'm a realist and I was not expecting another Alien. Scott has already made that film--there is no need for him to make it again, and that's not what he was doing here.

Alien was claustophobic, Prometheus is wide-open. Alien is intimate, Prometheus is epic. I could go on contrasting the two films but there is no need--while there are some things in common they are two different films.

Disappointments? Yes. My biggest disappointment was with the score--it was a bit too Star Trek in several places, though there were some musical shoutouts to the first film in a couple of places that I thought were very nice. All-in-all, though, I thought the score was too intrusive, inappropriate in spots, and a bit too pervasive. To give the composer the benefit of a doubt, though, he had a difficult task at hand because of my other issue with the film.

That is, it couldn't decide what kind of film it wanted to be--horror? Scifi? Allegory? Alien made that decision at a definite point--the famous chest-burster scene, where it suddenly became a haunted house story. While there are a couple of equivalent scenes in Prometheus it keeps drifting back and forth across that line, never wholly committing to one or the other.

That's not a major flaw here, though, more of a minor annoyance. In the end I didn't mind so much, and it didn't cost the film anything to my mind.

And the hommage to the original Greek myth that gives the film it's name was absolutely amazing and one of the hardest to watch scenes I've come across in a very long time.

Castwise--everyone was good to excellent. Fassbender's performance I'm sure you've heard is incredible. I loved Noomi Rapace, as well--and to all of you who were bitching about the decision to cast her, saying "She's no Sigourney Weaver"--you can all suck it. Of course she's no Sigourney. That's the whole point. She was perfect.

So, were any questions answered? Kind of. More questions were raised, and this is a good thing, provided the screenwriters and producers already have the answers to those questions. If they don't then the next film will make me feel like I'm being jerked around. If they do the next one will be as brilliant as this one.

Visually it was flawless. Like his stuff or hate it, Ridley Scott is a genius when it comes to shooting a film. You can see it here, in spades. Incredible. I have never seen anything like it.

Yes, there will be a sequel. Yes, I will see it. I can't wait.

I give it an A-. Only ding, really, was that disappointing film score.