vrijdag 10 mei 2013

Prometheus (2012)

Genre : SF
Country : USA

Cast :
Michael Fassbender : David
Noomi Rapace : Elizabeth Shaw
Charlize Theron : Meredith Vickers

Director :
Ridley Scott

Summary
This film is set in 2093 and takes place in the same universe as the 'Alien' movies. A group of explorers, including some archaeologists, are on an "undisclosed" mission. They arrive at a planet millions of miles away from Earth. The team spot what they believe to be signs of civilization. They go to investigate and find more than just signs, they find conclusive evidence. But some of them have an ulterior motive for being there, including the Weyland Corporation. They believe that this is where the human race actually came from. Things soon turn from excitement to survival once inside their discovery.

My opinion

"Whatever that probe is picking up, it's a life form."

I am a huge fan of the Alien saga myself. "Alien", the legendary cult film, I've seen originally in the cinema. Personally, I always thought "Aliens" was the best, most exciting and most pronounced Alien-part. But like I said, it's personal. I don't know how many times I've watched it on VHS, but I know it almost by heart. The next two parts actually passed me as a volatile item. Judging by the score on IMDB it's not that absurd. Part 1 and 2 get a 8.5 score, while the next two parts have to be satisfied with only a 6.4 and a 6.2 score.

First lets talk about the prequel blabbering. I'm not a supporter of the prequel stuff. It has been repeatedly shown that mostly it doesn't reach the level of the original part, and in my eyes it's just meditating on the commercial success of the original film. In other words it's just a way to exploit the followers and fans a little bit. But lets not generalize this. There are nuances. Personally, I think the "Star Wars" prequels are pure crap, "The Hobbit" isn't such a bad attempt and Prometheus is, in my eyes, not even really a prequel. Well it interfaces with "Alien" but it's SF so it may as well be other creatures. Not? "Mother" from "Alien" supposed to be a kind of supercomputer but actually it looked more like an old-fashioned ASCII mainframe, and the IT in Prometheus looks like state of the art. Kind of strange for a prequel.

And then I read the whole discussion with all these questions about how to explain everything, why it happened and how did they end up there. What's with the jockey, and who was now first and is this the origin of mankind. .. and blablabla ... It's SF and remains fiction. Fiction causes everyone having other type of questions where a zillion others have an own interpretation about, what results in again a bunch of other hypotheses. How the hell could they find exactly this place ? A chance of 1 in a million opportunities like I read in someones opinion. Who knows, they might have built a nano-bio ultramodern complex supercomputer on Earth, which could calculate this with superhuman precision. SF right ? But when a movie comes out which is a bit too linear and too obvious where no questions are asked about, general opinion will say this isn't great either.

Well, I have finally seen it ! With a bit of delay but that's because my digital list of movies I still need to see, is that long. I don't have the inclination to watch it in 3D, even if it adds value and looks more fantastic. I wear glasses and then I find it damn hard to start messing around with some plastic trinket to get it pinned on the rest of my too short nose. Ultimately, I am more busy dealing with the damn glasses than with the film.

And then finally about the movie: beautiful, majestic and like a great SF should be, with breathtaking moments in terms of the scenery, atmosphere and effects. Who knows, it really looks like this in the universe on an unknown planet. I'm glad Sigourney Weaver wasn't starring in this film, because I think she wouldn't fit in here and then the entire prequel discussion would collapse as a house of cards. For me this was just a good SF with some exciting moments. There aren't so many SF movies like this anymore. The fact that some characters look rather stupid and sometimes react in a very strange way, didn't bother me that much for once.