Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Prometheus

Prometheus is the 2012 prequel to Alien. I'm not the biggest fan of the Alien franchise, but that's because I saw the 1st one in the theater when it was released, in a period of my life before I had any appreciation for horror films, thinking it was a science fiction movie. It took me a while to get over that experience, and it still holds bad memories for me. This movie is more science fiction in my opinion than the original Alien was. This is not a direct prequel, but does fill in some of the history nicely. It is directed by Ridley Scott and stars Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron.

trailer:


Moria says, "There are a good many aspects to it –great production design, top drawer effects, fine casting," but they ended up disappointed. 1,000 Misspent Hours says, "... about all I can say in defense of Prometheus is that it mostly looks nice, and that the cast would have been terrific if they’d had anything worthwhile to work with."

Roger Ebert has a positive review that opens with this:
Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" is a magnificent science-fiction film, all the more intriguing because it raises questions about the origin of human life and doesn't have the answers. It's in the classic tradition of golden age sci-fi, ... it's a seamless blend of story, special effects and pitch-perfect casting, filmed in sane, effective 3-D that doesn't distract.
Slant Magazine and Slate complain that it doesn't answer the questions it raises. Rotten Tomatoes has a 73% critics score.

4 comments:

  1. Odd that R. Ebert gave it a positive review in light of what you and others said.

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    1. I realize now I didn't say I liked it, but I liked it fine. It's a science fiction film with good special effects and a great cast. There's not much else to it, but then I don't really need much else ;) It's not a great film by any means, but looking at the cast and the special effects is enough. It won't ever be my pick for re-watching, but I'm glad I saw it.

      Ebert's 4-star review is surprising to me.

      Ebert

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  2. I saw this recently and found it utter tripe, albeit pretty tripe. I liked the first Alien; I saw it in a small, packed theatre and it scared the heck out of me (and my friend, who almost tore off my hand lol). Even my father, who sat a few rows further back, came out with a white face. 1000 misspent hours nailed it, I think. With that cast and that director, I guess I had high expectations.

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    1. I'm just a sucker for big, special effects-heavy science fiction films. My younger son wants me to re-watch Alien now that I know it's a horror film and have more experience with the genre. I think that's probably a good idea. He had me watch the sequel, and that went well.

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