Prometheus My Review (Rant)

So after much anticipation from all the viral marketing and trailers, my high hopes for a brilliant movie from Sir Ridley Scott fell way short of expectation. I'm not gonna go into detail about the synopsis or plot outline as you already know what it's all about anyway but I will however, criticise about how the movie was executed, where all the flaws were and finally why it didn't make me feel satisfied after leaving the cinema. OK, the ambience of the movie was very good, good film-making techniques but either the director was on leave or he was tired (as in Mr Scott of 'Alien', wasn't the same director in Prometheus). The storyline I felt was rushed and there were elements that gripped my attention but really ended with frustration, as the plot and sub-plot never made a resolution on itself. I mean, for e.g. if you're a scientist whatever you discover for the first time should be thoroughly analysed and should have deep care and attention. I felt Noomi's Character Shaw didn't really care much about the Engineer's decapitated head and rushed the analytical stage by poking things into it and then overloaded the specimen by electrocuting to an exploded head. Thus, destroying your rare specimen. Anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself so let’s start from the beginning and briefly dissect the plotlines. Positively I have to say that the intro to Prometheus was excellent, it served as a poetic exposition tale of how life started on planet Earth by sacrificing one of the Engineers by breaking down his (it was male) DNA to evolve into newer beings ‘US’. A lot of the beginning sequences in the trailers are already explained what you watch at the start of the movie. The cave painting that pre-dates other civilisations by 35,000 years etc. Then once that scene was resolved we’re catapulted into the Prometheus ship travelling through space. At this point in the movie I felt disjointed. I mean as scientists you found a great discovery, don’t you think before travelling on a space ship light years from Earth to pitch your idea to a company like Weyland who has an interest in your research and then fund the search for the unknown. Then in turn succeeding the pitch which has a result of constructing the Prometheus Ship. I would have loved to have seen the this type of build-up because i, this would’ve shown how mighty a company Weyland is ii, acquiring and hand-picking the exploration team iii, construction of David being programmed etc iv, show and explain their back-story before they end up on the ship. This would’ve helped me as a viewer care about these characters a lot more. The scene when the crew except David are on the Prometheus ship but in hyper-sleep was good, because we got sense that yes this space travel stuff is very long-hauled and yes we get to see how David interacts with himself by learning and imitating Human-Beings etc. I enjoyed the part when everyone wakes up and they’re all feeling sick and throwing up due to lack of movement and sustenance I had a sense of realism here. I also enjoyed the scene which you also see in the trailers, the presentation of why they are on the search of these Engineers. You get to see Guy Pearce’s Character as an Aged Peter Weyland interacting with the panel via a pre-recorded projection, which had some light humour with Milburn and Fifield. At this point of the review I’m not going to delve in so deep but I will touch on points here and there that I felt was either disjointing or enjoyable. So finally when the team touch down on LV-223 the exploration starts to unravel bit by bit. I enjoyed how the team and technology (pups) were working with each other until David went a bit off-track which I felt was bit concerning as it was too early to be doing such deviant activities but in turn it was a pay-off because he activated by accident a real-time holographic recording of the engineers running away from something and then ending the fate of one unfortunate engineer without his head. Then before they enter the temple like room with all the vases facing toward the big head. David again goes off track by playing with a control panel. Shaw see’s David messing around like a little toddler but it was too late - door opens. Now at this point, any exploration team is always headed by a team leader giving out orders, obviously Dr Elizabeth Shaw assumed the team leader position but she really didn’t take charge of it at all. It was a like an amateur allowing the team to go freely wherever they wanna go. In the real-world that’s not only dangerous but plain stupid as well. This scene should’ve been written and constructed more realistically. The team now enter the room, there is so much to discover the murals on the walls (especially the xenomorph artwork of a Christ-like image), the meal-worms in the soil and that big ass head. Here the team don’t really care or show any scientific methods here. They just grab a decapitated head but again David steals a vase without the team knowing about it. Again, here if I was a team leader of these experts I would try and use their expert knowledge of what this room is. Also I would definitely be asking David analytical questions about what he’s seeing (as he can see, smell, taste, hear and touch things differently to Humans – think Data on Star Trek Next Generation). Once their back on-board the Prometheus they start to analyse the head and they discover it’s genetics etc. However, they totally overlooked the meaning of the big head, the xenomorph mural, black substance and even the meal-worms in the soil. David does his thing in secret that reminded me of Ash analysing the dead face-hugger. This time around I was annoyed that he didn’t do any microscopic research under a microscope or anything. He just popped open the lid, broke the container of the black liquid and then poured on his finger and says ‘Big things have small beginnings’ My question to this is -- Why? We can clearly see he doesn’t know shit, or even what this thing can do Humans let alone himself just because he artificial doesn’t mean to say it can’t modify him in anyway. (Felt really annoyed at this point – just Carelessness) I enjoyed the scene with David and Holloway that was one heck of a deviant scene but was already spoilt by Fox revealing this on the web a few weeks prior to the opening day of Prometheus. The scene that annoyed me the most was Milburn and Fifield getting lost in New York subway tunnels. Let’s be honest with each other. These guys are supposed to be smart intellectual scientist within the field with an IQ higher than most but they couldn’t find their way out which was the same way they came in with the others. Also, they were linked to the same communication device like the others but again still couldn’t manage to get out. This was just plain dumb and laziness from the writers - Honestly. Another additional annoying thing about the two guys when they get told to stay put because of the weather outside, they don’t camp down back up to where they entered the pyramid. No they just go back into the temple like room and start acting really silly with each other. For starters, Fifiled spots something in the black goo and Milburn decides to go and try pet the thing like as if it’s a pet animal. I mean that’s just irresponsibly dumb and as a result got himself killed, along with fifeld. However, fifield mutated into a super strong kill everything zombie. He had a short lifespan – whack! What I felt was partly good was the after-math of infected Holloway and Shaw having sex, then we see slightly small changes but with a big incoming impact. We see the exploration team getting ready to explore again. Holloway starts to breakdown, the team get panicking, They see all this black goo everything and don’t question it, they see Milburn dead with something poppin out of his mouth – they don’t question it and Fifield is nowhere to be seen. The team really get panicking!! They head back to the Prometheus ship!! Holloway volunteers to get killed by Vickers burning his ass up. Ok I’m gonna stop there because this section was really important to for the writers to really take their time and understand what’s going on here? I’m going to bullet point my frustrations here for time constraints: • Shaw waking up from a black out and discovers she’s 3 months pregnant within a 10-hour window (alien) – here just because she’s blacked out doesn’t mean to say we can’t see the movie through one of the other characters eyes. For example Vickers, maybe she wants to know what the hell is going on her ship? (like they did in Alien – just because John Hurt was out cold with a facehugger doesn’t mean they should cut out all of the ambiguity scenes of when Parkers say they should freeze him etc) • What really happened to Holloway? Quarantine and analyse his dead burnt body. • Analyse the fucked up looking but dead Fifield. What happened to him and why did he become the way he did? • The self-caesarean surgery of Shaw. Yes she extracted the thing inside of her but did she tell anyone about it…No!! I mean lets be real if you saw something like that you’re gonna wanna say something!! • The situation with mr Weyland was cool. • David checking out the Engineer’s pilot room was cool and fascinating • Yanek telling Shaw while she was suiting up, that this planet is a military, experimenting outpost and not their home world. I have a problem with this, how does Yanek know this is what he thinks it is and on top of that why do giant beings point to the stars on the various archaeological artefacts? Why did they point to their top secret facility in the universe? Yes this is where we made you but c’mon gimme something credible here. • Taking mr Weyland to see one of the surviving engineers was cool as well. However, this fell short by trying to communicate with them. This scene was so ridiculous I thought EPIC FAIL!! These beings are intelligent and not brutes even though they are muscular in size. The scene was like tearing apart for me because on one hand you had Shaw interrupting Weyland by screaming and crying to the Engineer after it wakes up like why you hate us so much, why do you wanna kill us etc – all negative!! Then you have mr Weyland saying to David to translate to the Engineer if he can make me immortal etc. But then it all becomes really weird, you see the engineer stroking the top of David’s head with curiosity then ripping his head off, killing the team minus Shaw who got away. At this stage I would’ve liked to see some sort of communication whether it was good or bad intentions, explaining who they are, why they made us? This scene could’ve worked by having David translate Weyland’s questions and then having the Engineer show the Humans through a holographic interface of their past activities creating life and destroying life. (The creating life bit could be something very similar to the beginning of the start of Prometheus. Then the destroying part you see the horse-shoe ship releasing the cargo on a world they wish to destroy.) My version would’ve made more sense as it’s like a secret agent has revealed his/her activities to you but now you have to die. • I’m skipping the suicidal scene as you all seen it in the trailers anyway (stupid trailers revealing key scenes) • The final act of the movie was ok but it didn’t explain why the black goo when interacting with Human DNA would produce a giant proto-facehugger. Then chest-bursting scene with the engineer that xeno didn’t look anything like the xenos from the Alien movies. Also why after it pops out of his chest is the xeno big, black, pointy head and has eyes and not small, translucent, no eyes, rounded head and a double mouth??? All can say is the Alien is part 25% Human, 25% Engineer and 50% Black-gooey stuff. Which leaves me to believe that this black-goo is obviously a biological weapon that can kill a population within its own pro-creation cycle. The ending to Prometheus was a disappointing one. Filled with too many ambiguities and not enough answers. Lastly, I hate cliff-hangers in movies except in television. Seeing Shaw and David whizz off to the Engineer’s home world has setup us up for another film. • If we do get another film I want it to show Shaw and David on the Engineer’s home world setting up a beacon for a recuse team, learning about the engineers, their purpose to create and destroy life. • The merge between Weyland Yutani • The linkage of Alien how LV-426 came about? (Maybe tying in the new xeno with the other ships that are still left on LV-223) Despite asking for well written and maybe a direct prequel or a prequel-esque. It was a mediocre film which left me a huge fan of the Alien Mythos in great disappointment... Don’t ask for direct prequel to Alien...Won't happen!! Perhaps its a story that will spiral into many sequels, as opposed to have a single story that has a true resolution... The movie had an excellent score, the visuals were amazing, the 3D really did immerse you into the world you're watching (like Avatar did). Great acting skills by Michael Fassbender as David, Charlize Theron as Cold hearted Company woman (and daughter of Weyland - explains why she is what she is), Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland was amusing but fun character but then the rest were average... Movie rating 7.5/10 (Ridley has to do better next time)