Prometheus: misfire or misunderstood?

Prometheus started life as a prequel to the 1979 sci-fi classic Alien, but during years of development grew into something bigger and relegated the xenomorph to an almost incidental. As a fan of the Alien and HR Giger’s Oscar winning effects (pieces adorn my walls, grace my shelves, my desk at work) I thought I would be disappointed with how it would be included; I was very wrong. See my shouts below on what I took away from the Alien aspect of the film.

Prometheus stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Logan Marshall-Green, with Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce. At its heart Prometheus tells the story of our search for answers as to who we are and where we came from, and is a film that the more you dig the more you take away from it.
I’ve been an admirer of Polish cinematographer Dariusz Wolski from as far back as The Crow and Dark City, however it is his work on Sweeney Todd that was my highlight. I have a new highlight. From the first frame to the last the film is simply gorgeous. He finds the detail in the sets and costumes and casts your eye over them in an unassuming way to let you find them yourself. I don’t think I blinked the entire length of the film.

The visual, practical and makeup effects are remarkable and need to be seen on the big screen at least once. I’ve heard criticism of Guy Pearce’s make up and find them unfounded. Comments that it looked like it belonged in a high school play are ridiculous, it has Oscar nom all over it. I think the issue more lies in the anticipation throughout the film of seeing him without it, forgetting that we already have among the viral material (The TED Talks was truly inspired).

So with all of the shiny out of the way, let’s wind our way through the film as a whole.

The film is dense with ideas but often disjointed and uneven with some pedestrian dialog and some questionable acting. Scott has confirmed that the home release will be 20 minutes longer and have 30 minutes of deleted scenes; that alone speaks volumes. There are scenes and interactions that end abruptly and others that clearly pick up from something we just didn’t see. One character goes from being a bit put out to losing himself at the bottom of a bottle the next time we see him, with nothing between. You can often feel when they occur because they are quite jarring.

Much has been made of the thinly realised and ineffectual crew. My hope is that a solid portion of those 20 minutes gives them a little more flesh, however I feel it is going to be in the deleted scenes. They will still often make the same stupid decisions, but a bit more depth to them might make it a little clearer why.

Michael Fassbender owns this film with his realisation of the nuanced David. Rapace, Theron and Pearce are great in their roles, but I think I would have been fine with any of the others being recast with the exception maybe of Sean Harris’ underdeveloped Fifield.
So how, with all of that, is Prometheus still so damn good? Ridley Scott. The film is bursting at the seams trying to contain itself, you can feel it. I don’t know of another Director that could have achieved the vision Scott has shown us, he just should have shown us over 3 hours.

Prometheus works on a number of levels depending on how much of the surface you care to scratch away. If you just want a Sci-Fi action film with aliens. Tick. If you are looking for more, it’s there; it doesn’t spoon feed you and you will need to pay close attention, read between the lines and deduce. It’s a movie that I’ve been thinking about for a week after seeing it only once and can’t wait to don my 3D glasses and take the ride again.

So, Prometheus: misfire or misunderstood? I think a little from column A and a lot from column B

Totally facehugged