Prometheus
The story centers on a group of scientists/explorers who trek to the farthest reaches of the universe, on the spaceship Prometheus, in an attempt to find the origin species to human kind on Earth. However, when they arrive at their destination, and set out on their quest, they find much more than they bargained for.
I have to admit that I had very high expectations for this Ridley Scott film. I’m a fan of his other work and therefore I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. Unfortunately, the film falls flat in many respects. Let’s start with the positives, though. The film is visually fantastic and a pleasure to watch from that standpoint. Additionally, Michael Fassbender’s character of David is interesting and intriguing, which gives a bright spot to all of his scenes. That, however, is where the positives ended for me. The script gives us a story that’s for the most part thoroughly predictable and the dialogue is lackluster and generally dull, as is the majority of the film itself.
The first half hour or so is all over the place in an attempt to give us some backstory, which would be okay if we were given interesting and compelling information on the characters. Sadly, we aren’t, and that lack carries over throughout the film. We aren’t given any reason to care about the characters at all and for me I certainly didn’t. The second half of the film does pick up in both its action and story, but it’s really too little too late. In the latter moments when the captain says that he doesn’t care, I have to completely agree with him.
I’ve always used a specific critiquing measure for all movies I watch and it is this, if all the characters were to blow up at the end of the film, do I care. I’ve always found this to be a great gauge for me on how well the story and characters in the film pulled me in and made me a part of their world for the ninety minutes plus that I spent with them. Using this personal criterion, and it works especially well with this film, I have to say that I definitely wouldn’t bother me if these characters ceased to exist. The ending itself could have been good, but by the time we got there I just wanted to leave, so even that homage to a much better Scott film fell flat. All of that leads me to, with much sadness, give Prometheus ♥ ♥ 1/2.
I won’t tell you not to go see it, but for me it felt like a waste of my time. Am I being too hard on it? Were my expectations too high? Let us know what you think.
Opened June 8, 2012.
Rated R for violence, intense images, and brief language, with a running time of 124 minutes.
Starring: Michael Fassbender – David, Noomi Rapace – Elizabeth Shaw, Charlize Theron – Meredith Vickers, Logan Marshall-Green – Charlie Holloway, Guy Pearce – Peter Weyland, Idris Elba – Janek
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