Saturday, October 13, 2012
Michael Allen
**here be spoilers.
Director: Ridley Scott.
Writers: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof, Dan O'Bannon, and Ronald Shusett.
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Emun Elliott, Benedict Wong, and Kate Dickie.
The fourth film in the Aliens series, Prometheus, is an ambitious film. It sets itself all across the universe in search of the meaning or the reason for human life. Writers Jon Spaihts (The Darkest Hour) and Damon Lindelof ("Lost") take some of their story from Greek legend. Prometheus is originally a Titan who contests the order of things. He is humiliated by the other, newer gods after he provides humanity with fire. He is banished much like the other Titans. In Prometheus, many characters are equally humiliated for their hubris. They want to find the origin of life. Instead, they find a group of universal engineers who want to snuff out their human experiment, which they perceive as having gone wrong.
Neither a prequel nor a sequel, Prometheus simply takes place in the Alien universe. Except, there are very few aliens, that fans would be used to seeing, appearing in this film. A group of planet seeders are really at the heart of this showing. Their true purpose is often kept in mystery, but they seem to be experimenting with life including human life.
The engineers, on a remote planet, are also experimenting with a new alien species. This species will be recognizable to fans of the first three films. Reptilian in nature, these creatures impregnate some of the human explorers once they have travelled deep into space. They also turn men into Frankenstein-like forms until the human space crew fights back. But, is it too late?
Fans of sci-fi will likely enjoy this fourth film. However, the aliens such as the facehugger, chestburster, soldier and queen are only present on the periphery. In the third act, these creatures are most present and it is a shame that they are not shown more in earlier scenes. Instead, there is a lumbering humanoid, known as the engineer, present in holograms. They are mysterious in nature. Their presence is only initially seen in the structures on LV-223. It would have been more chilling to have seen the engineers deal directly with their lab rats (humans) rather than indirectly through old visual recordings.
Most of those recordings appear in a pyramid like structure. In this monolith, there are endless tunnels, tombs and what look like burial urns. While their are Christian themes here, there seems to be a focus on a much older civilization, an Egyptian one. The film is attempting to relate itself to older human cultures.
Also Christian in tone, the engineers appear as gods much like the Titan mentioned above. They seem limitless and gargantuan in scope. Their places are enormous and their legend builds leading into Act III. Although they never speak, certain characters believe them to be god-like. They created humanity after all. But, they have fallen to a more animalistic predator, which they have created. So, they are indeed fallible. There are many symbols of religion in this film and one of the greater themes involves belief versus cynicism.
In the end, this is a sci-fi adventure. The horror tones of Scott's original Alien (1979) have mostly been replaced by a grander more spiritual story. Although influenced by existentialism, this title plays out much like an adventure as several explorers venture far into space. What they find is challenging, but rarely chilling. It seems that some of the darkness from the earlier films has been forgotten in favour of larger questions. This film almost seems like it has bitten off more than it can chew in story, theme and structure. Few answers await viewers at the end of the tale.
But, there are always more special features to view, if the story does not excite you. There are over seven hours of extras on the Blu-ray release of Prometheus! The more interesting special features involve commentaries. Director Ridley Scott gives his perspective on this film and this is truly a passionate filmmaker. He offers many more insights into the film from a production standpoint. As well, the writers appear in a second commentary. There are over twelve "extended" or "alternate" scenes. Many of the clips seem to elongate the relationship between the central characters: Elizabeth (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green). Their is more antagonism between these two in these extended cuts. As well, the engineers were given dialogue in one of the scenes near the ending, but the mystery was lost and these scenes were cut. Finally, there are four "Peter Weyland Files," which add very little to this title overall. The android, David (Michael Fassbender), is seen arguing for his use in the work place and the character Weyland (Guy Pearce) gives a speech in front of a CGI created crowd. These final reels seem more amusing than enhancing.
Prometheus is a large and elaborate production. This is a film that tackles some of the greatest questions set before humanity and those questions are only partially answered in this two hour feature. Prometheus will leave viewers ever questioning. Truly enjoyable, this title is an exceptional film especially targeted to sci-fi fans looking for deep material in a hostile landscape.
Overall: 8 out of 10 (great production values, great performances, some tension, some mystery, no real answers).
*filmed for an unbelievable $120,000,000.
**director Scott may or may not be drinking during his commentary.
***there is also a question posed by the characters in the film: "why did they (engineers) change their mind in creating us (humans)?" The engineers created the facehuggers and they turned against them. It is not hard to assume that the engineers believe that humans will also turn against them as well. This is one hypothesis; there are likely others.
The film's homepage is here:
The Prometheus Homepage
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