Like the titan Prometheus, Ridley Scott is sometimes treated
like the man who brought science-fiction fire to the American cinema, if only
for his impressive one-two punch of Alien
and Blade Runner. With Prometheus,
Scott returns to his roots and, so to speak, mankind’s in a sci-fi epic that
finds its protagonists exploring the genesis of man. But while the scale is epic, the result is somewhat
lukewarm, successful on many levels but in other places suffering from its servitude
to its own mythology.
Funded by elderly tycoon Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), a team
of scientists led by archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) travels to a
distant world after disparate hieroglyphics point to humanity’s origins. In search of “The Engineers,” mysterious
beings that may have seeded Earth with the potential for life, Shaw and her
colleagues soon discover that their destination is filled with horrors, and that
Weyland employees Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and the android David
(Michael Fassbender) have their own agendas.
While Scott protested (perhaps too much) that Prometheus wasn’t quite a prequel to the
Alien franchise, he later compromised
by conceding that Prometheus was
linked to Alien and contained prequel-like
elements, insisting all the while that Prometheus
needed to be taken on its own terms.
Since I’ve only seen the original once, when I was perhaps too young
(indeed, my best memories of the film come from its place in Disney World’s “Great
Movie Ride”), I can appreciate Prometheus
as its own entity but can’t help recognizing how the movie very nearly falls
apart because of its connection to the original series.
Screenwriter Damon Lindelof caught a lot of flak for ending Lost (with Carlton Cuse) without
addressing much of the series’ mythology, instead focusing on the characters
and their story arcs. It seems that
Lindelof is pulling the same trick here, introducing a mythology which the characters
pursue but which the audience never quite comprehends. Case in point: the film begins with an Engineer planting the
genetic seeds of human DNA on Earth millennia ago, yet the rest of the film abandons
this premise in favor of Engineers who want to destroy Earth. While the audience doesn’t need to be
spoon-fed answers (although that happens a few times in the movie, often when
characters say “Listen to me” or “You mean to tell me...?”), it’s insulting to
the viewer when characters literally leave the confines of the film to seek
answers, presumably in a sequel.
But wait! you cry.
Doesn’t it matter more how the characters are affected by their quest
for answers? Well, sure, except in Prometheus characters enter the film
with questions and leave it to pursue those same questions, with no discernible
development in between. The only
catharsis in the film comes in a last-second jump moment that finally and
explicitly concretizes the connection between Prometheus and Alien. While it’s a recognizable payoff, it’s more
Easter egg than satisfying conclusion, as if we’re meant to cheer and not to
recognize this isn’t an ending but rather a tease for Prometheus 2. (A
comparison: it’s the same thing as if The Dark Knight had ended with Batman
chasing after The Joker – cut to black – before showing us that Bane was
breaking into Wayne Manor at that moment; end credits. Thank heavens the Nolans are smarter writers
than Lindelof.)
It’s unfortunate that Rapace, the ostensible star, has been
given so little to do in this and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, her American blockbuster debuts, since she’s
probably a very qualified actress (I’ve never seen her Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but have only heard promising things). Indeed, the only actor who distinguishes
himself in the cast is Fassbender, who does fascinating work as David. While an android is supposedly emotionless
and inhuman, Fassbender imbues David with several very subtle characteristics,
including his fan-worship of Peter O’Toole’s Lawrence of Arabia and his burgeoning disdain for his xenophobic
(and robophobic) fellow travelers. He’s
a bit like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen,
seemingly unfeeling but ultimately saying everything with a twitch as potent as
a sob.
All of this would seem to suggest that Prometheus is a terrible movie, downright rubbish with only a Fassbender
in the rough to redeem it. Surprisingly,
such isn’t quite the case with Prometheus. Rather, this is a film that succeeds by being
bizarrely compelling, if only as a spectacle.
Much of this is due to Scott’s dexterity as a storyteller; even if the story
signifies nothing in the end, it’s told not by an idiot but by a skilled
craftsman who knows exactly where to deploy his sound and fury.
If I were to sum up the one emotion I felt during the film,
it’s “dread.” Not dread of a bad movie
without a refund, but dread – fear – terror – for the characters I shouldn’t have
cared about. Like a great horror/thriller
ought to, Prometheus managed to get
me to murmur, “No, no, that’s not good.
Don’t do that” time and time again as, perhaps predictably, the humans
make a series of bad choices that leads to their inevitable extermination. There’s no jump moment to rival the “last
supper” scene in the original Alien,
although an invasive surgical procedure got me squirming and led the guy two
seats over to abandon his place in our row until the worst had passed.
Though I felt cheated by the way I hadn’t been given a full
movie (much the same reaction I had to Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, the reason I waited to rent Part 2), what prevented me from asking
for a refund was that the story, while incomplete, was well-told. Though Lindelof drops the ball a bit, Scott
swoops in for a save and turns Prometheus
from a fumble to a field goal (but a touchdown it ain’t). If nothing else, it's ensured that this will not be the last time you see the world "Alien" on this site.
Prometheus is rated
R “for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language.” The terrors that await the crew of the ship
are not for the faint-hearted, and such terrors include (but are not limited
to) (POTENTIAL SPOILERS) entanglement, impalement, asphyxiation, smashing,
decapitation, bludgeoning, incineration, and evaporation. I can’t remember any off-color language,
although Idris Elba has a hilarious verbal seduction scene with Charlize
Theron.
1 comment:
You know, I was very underwhelmed when I saw it in the theater, but after rewatching Blade Runner and liking it much better the second time, I gave it another chance, considering that it, too, apparently has several different levels and things to look for (at least according to the Internet). It's a very well-made film, very good looking. But even after watching with a more critical eye, still, NOTHING is explained. And nobody seems to be saying this, but I will: the movie isn't just connected to the Alien series, it IS Alien. There are some differences, but it's basically the same plot as the first half of the original, where they explore the ancient crashed ship. Except their findings are a lot less scary.
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