my personal review 9/10

My review of Prometheus 3D 05 June 2012 NO SPOILERS I have watched Alien and Blade Runner several times and viewed Alien again a week before seeing Prometheus. Both of these films still impress me. I have watched and read a lot of sci-fi over the years (60 to be precise) so was looking forward to a potential sci-fi boundary shattering experience, especially with Ridley Scott at the helm. Having seen many of the trailers this seemed more than likely. In retrospect I feel the trailers showed a little too much information. I personally put 2001, and Dune at the top of my iconic sci-fi films and Eon/Eternity and Darwin’s Radio (all by Greg Bear) as the most ground breaking sci-fi books. I went with a friend who was not really into the Alien franchise, rather like me, and watched it on a largish screen in Real 3D. This was my first 3D experience. Prometheus is a 2 hour film but the experience flew by and was disappointed when I knew the end was nigh. The 3D was done sensitively and was not overpowering – just strong enough to further enhance the already amazing sets and CGI (perhaps the best ever). The Spiderman trailer was shown before Prometheus and I felt particularly uncomfortable with its implementation of 3D – I would think going thru that whole film might be a 3D nightmare. Back to Prometheus itself- For me it began majestically, beautifully and mysteriously. Although for me there were a few quirky scenes (not sure whether they were intended as light relief or black comedy) during the rest of the film, I was happy with the overall storyline (even the ending which seems to have annoyed a lot of viewers). In fact upon reflection I was really happy with the ending. There are obviously some hidden agendas, well at least one, being played out – and these are the things I like to play with in my head, but clearly some people are not going to appreciate this aspect of the film. Deep character building in an action film (and there is a lot of action – not quite as scary as stuff in Alien/Aliens) is not always possible when a lot of different things are going on and you only have 2 hours to pack so much in – but for me Scott correctly concentrated on David and Elizabeth for that sort of treatment. They are clearly the true future explorers. For me the monster stuff, rightly so, was just a part of the story line NOT the main focus as in Alien and Aliens. They were done with Scott’s normal efficiency – though they seemed not to threaten as much as I expected. The audio has attracted many different audience responses – personally I found it perfectly knitting into the unfolding story, so I hardly noticed it and certainly can’t criticise it – I think that is a good sign. There are several awe inspiring and/or wondrous moments that I will always remember - but won’t mention them here. I have several logistical questions about the story and action but they only surfaced after watching the film, and more importantly they did not disturb my deep enjoyable involvement during the performance. I will raise these questions in my separate SPOILER review, but I have to say, even now we don’t know the Engineers that well, there is still so much to learn. Their exact purpose and actions in the past and the future will depend on the script writers. I am not convinced the Engineers are as quite as evil as everyone thinks, but possibly they may not have a conscious, like David (or is he growing one?). There is beauty in this film and a strangeness that may pass many by. I have to say I was engrossed the whole way through, similar to like I was with 2001 a Space Odyssey. Whether it will reach the same status as the latter is doubtful since we live in different times and have different expectancies. I will see it at least one more time and give it 9/10 – which I think I would have given 2001 and Dune upon the first viewing.