Prometheus

Prometheus is a sort of maybe prequel to the Alien saga.  The creators hedged their bets and sort of made it somewhat of a reboot as well so that no one can really yell at them for not being slavish to the original series.  They could and did yell at them for asking questions and not answering them.  That doesn't bother me so much.  What bothers me is that it pretends to be an intelligent and thoughtful film but it has a crew vastly unable to face up to the dramatic challenge of the piece.

First the good news.  This is a beautiful film.  Even when it is on an ass ugly piece of rock, it is just shot so perfect that it carries an unearthly beauty.  The futuristic designs are beautiful and it's a good  thing this is something of a reboot because it would be hard to believe that the computers in "Alien" were suppose to be made after this, though to be fair maybe that's like saying a truck doesn't have the classic lines of a '56 Ford.  Something to think about.

So, a bunch of ancient civilizations have a picture of some dots.   Two ardent scientists figure that dots equal starmap equal invitation by aliens that obviously created us and not just came by for tea.  That is a LOT of assumptions to be the basis of a trillion dollar expedition.  I want to see these two write a grant!  Also, they assume that all languages come from one base and that base is what the aliens (called Engineers) speak and  that THEIR language hasn't changed at all in 35,000 years and that their handsome android can figure from our languages what this root tongue is, learn it and speak it like a pro.

Me?  I'd put stock in some rail guns and roses.  Only way to be sure.

So they find the rock get down and find that there is some weird installation there is black slime in a can.  Black slime is bad, really really bad.  It infects some people, makes little snakes that slide into people, give other people surprises, and just seems to do whatever the screen writers want to make you jump at that moment.  Now here is where the crew falls down.  First there are like three different agendas.  There is the ardent scientist camp that is there for pure science.  Then there is the merc crew of scientists and support personal who don't seem to give two damns and a fig.  Then there is the android wonderfully played by Michael Fassbender and the Suit in a dress played coldly by Charlize Theron who represent the company, the money and the madness behind the expedition.  Now those two I don't have a problem with since they dramatic purpose, but really for a trillion dollars, A TRILLION DOLLARS, expedition can't you find a better crew than apathetic pot smoking in their space suit idiots?  This isn't the equivalent of a space truck being waylaid by some beacon.  This was supposedly a PLANNED affair.  Maybe I wouldn't have minded so much if they were 10% more interesting as people but on the whole they are just blanks with props being manipulated by the screen writers. 

As to the Engineers.  Our example, isn't a stellar example of alien intelligence.  Actually in looks and actions he reminds me of the original carrot monster in "The Thing."  Maybe we should give a bit of lee way, I'm sure being  frozen for thousands of years can't be good for you or your attitude.  Still it says a lot that we root for the vagina squid over our supposed creators. 

Difinitely worth a watch and I'd love to see them do a sequel to address the question of the Engineer's relationship to the Predators.  That could be very interesting indeed.