Prometheus

First off, I went into Prometheus not entirely sure if I was indeed watching an Alien prequel or not. (according to the studio) First it was, then it wasn't, then it kinda was but they weren't calling it one, etc. Let me say that Prometheus most definitely is part of the Alien story. It just goes in an uncommon direction. The deciding factor in whether you're going to like this film or not, is what you hope to get out of an Alien prequel. If you're looking for a space horror like the original, this is not so much that. If you want an other-worldly guns-a-blazing action flick like Aliens, this is not really that either. What this is, is somewhere between those films, with a much bigger emphesis on story. As a movie-buff and one of those 70-80's kids who grew up on films like Alien and Star Wars, I constantly wanted to know what was behind everything. Where did these aliens come from? Who/what was that fossilized (appearing) creature sitting behind the big gun when the Nostromo crew entered the ship on LV-426? Who's ship is this & why was it there? Questions such as these are finally answered with Prometheus, along with one giant revelation to an unposed question. One that is much larger and far deeper than anything else contemplated within this series. One that could be potentially very disturbing to some. I will go no further into that aspect, so as not to spoil anything. Of course this film has guns-a-blazing action and the spooky atmosphere of the first two films... Just not to the degree of either one. This is a well balanced Sci-Fi film, with some truly spectacular visuals & effects that most importantly, do not overtake the story. If you're one of the few who has never seen the original Alien films, doing so is not really required (though highly suggested). The way in which these old questions are answered is not done in such a way that you ever had to have asked them in the first place. There is no big fanfare or fancy reveal, as to say HERE IT IS!. The film is thankfully not ruined in that way. But for those who have seen the first four films and have questions, the moments where everything just comes together are found in Prometheus. While this film could stand on it's own, it is left begging for a sequel, as all ends are not tied up and new questions are definitely asked. As far as the picture & sound quality of this (Blu-ray) disc are concerned, both are absolutely stunning. Prometheus is quite probably the best looking & sounding live action BD I have ever viewed. To put simply, the picture is breathtakingly flawless. I could detect no artifacts, banding or any other negative aspect, even in dark & high contrast scenes. Color is vibrant yet realistic and blacks are decidedly black. Sound is dynamic with great bass and effects are precisely placed. Most importantly (and sadly uncommon) is the fact that dialog is consistantly clear and audible without having to adjust the volume between voice & effects. When it comes to picture & sound, Prometheus is of reference quality and sets a new standard.

This 2 DVD package is a perfect example of why you should purchase the set, rather than just viewing online from a streaming service. The movie is well written, the sets, acting and effects are top level and state of the art. It leaves one with lots of questions about the Engineers and why each alien doesn't look like the ones we saw in the Alien movies: those questions are answered in a beautiful example of leading-edge technology. If you have an iPad or Android tablet/phone, you can download a Prometheus app that will link with your Blu-ray player if it supports BD-Live! As the movie plays, background information is displayed on the tablet including production notes and sketches. At certain parts of the movie, the movie is paused while a video from one of the producers/directors/special effects editors, etc., is displayed on the tablet. The movie then continues. At other places, alternate or deleted scenes are added to the viewing experience at the exact place they fit in the film. You have an option on the tablet to skip the experience, but it is worth watching if you truly want to appreciate the time, talent and effort that went into making this film. The other add-ons on the second disk, including the SD version, Digital Copy and additional resources telling you about the movie are all worth watching. The history of how the movie came into existence is remarkable, as well as how the first Alien movie was completed with a few starts and stops. The production team and director made it all look too easy and polished when we all saw the first Alien movie...the story is an inspiration for all of us who aspire to be creative, jump hurdles and achieve goals over time. Noomi Rapace brings the same level of intensity and emotion to her role as she did in the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" trilogy. (She was good in Sherlock Holmes too, but the role did not offer anywhere near the challenge of this one.) Charlize Theron continues to amaze with her acting as a hard-core, highly disciplined, driven...but still-wanting-to-be-a-loved-daughter persona. Idris Elba does a great job of balancing out Theron's intensity with calm leadership, focus and demeanor: after all, it's Christmas! Michael Fassbender is both frightening and fascinating as the cyborg with a hidden agenda and a bad habit of listening in on other people's dreams. Guy Pearce makes good use of his screen time although there is not much of it: his movements and voice, along with remarkable make-up transformed him into a very old man with his own special, but not surprising, agenda. The rest of the cast does a good job in adding depth and texture to the story line. If you want to learn an interesting interpretation of the mural they find....watch the add-on info carefully. And....the ending leaves room for a sequel!

I'll get the visceral reaction out of the way quickly. I was disappointed with the movie the first time I watched it, from a director who gave us the original "Alien" and "Blade Runner" plus gripping non-sci fi films such as "Black Rain" and "Gladiator". The best thing I can say for Director Scott is that I believe the primary problem is not with the premise, which had enormous potential, but in the plot and the line by line writing. But, I watched it a second time the next night, and some of the kinks were ironed out by noticing some lines. Also, the relevance of the Prometheus myth became far clearer, and through it, I realized an important back story explanation which was obscured by the characters' ignorance. Read the Prometheus story before watching the movie and pay very close attention to the opening (and think 2001 opening.) One indicator of how incomplete things seem is that the very old billionaire, Peter Weyland, is played by a fine middle aged actor, Guy Pearce, but we never see him younger in flashbacks, which were probably cut from the final editing. Without giving too much away, the Peter Weyland character adds very little to the story aside from being the person who funds the mission. I sensed something was seriously out of joint when the "away team" enters the cavernous artifact. After encountering something just a bit squeamish, the geologist Fifield (Sean Harris) and biologist Milburn (Rafe Spall) decide to return to the Prometheus (the name of the humans' interstellar space ship.) The remaining team does a fair amount of exploring. Among other things, they see a hologram of the intelligent giants, drawings of whom they found on Earth. they are seeking running from some unseen danger. I saw no clue to what triggered the hologram. Following the hologram, they find the decapitated head of one of the giants (as opposed to the 'aliens' we encountered in earlier films). The captain of the Prometheus sends them a message that a serious storm is approaching. The team, with the usual annoyingly distracting side efforts which slow them down, reach the entrance and begin driving their vehicles back to the ship. But, and here the train falls off the track, never to return, we find Fifield and Milburn still in the artifact, when they said they were returning to the ship. They found some kind of life which intrigued the biologist. But why didn't the team returning to the ship notice that none of their vehicles were gone. Why did they leave the other two behind? Somehow, the two truants don't get the warning about the storm, or ignore it, so they become stuck in the artifact. There are loose ends aplenty with the alien fauna on this desolate world. My expectation coming in was that the film would explore the origins of two creatures, the "Alien" and the race of the giant pilot discovered by the crew of the mining ship Nostromo in "Alien". We meet the giants soon enough, but we also encounter at least three other life forms which have a passing resemblance to THE Alien, but their connection to the life cycle of the Alien is never explained. I'm entering dangerous "spoiler" territory now, so I will not discuss any more of the plot except to say that there are a number of unexplained events. Mysteries are great in the middle of the film, but one expects most of these to be wrapped up and revealed at the end of the picture. Many are not, leaving a huge jumping off point for a sequel to "Prometheus". Part of the special attraction of this story is that the audience knows full well what will eventually happen, so there is a lot of mental "don't go there" and "don't do that" moments, because we already know what things that look like that can do. The problem with that is that there is too much "quoting" from "Alien" for my tastes. Most of it is done relatively well, but it becomes more and more obvious as time goes on, and increasingly annoying. There is also ample quoting from other major Sci Fi movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (both in situations and in dialogue). There are also some subtle cinematic (visual) quotes from "Avatar" and "Jurassic Park". One of the bright spots, aside from the imaginative, well done CGI and cinematography, is the acting, which I always thought was a weak spot in "Alien". The crewmen, such as Captain Idris Elba, are spot on (unlike Yahpet Kotto in "Alien"). Instead of the strong Ellen Ripley character, we have the physically smaller and less imposing archaeologist, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) who sports a convincing English accent as the lead character. Charlize Theron's character is restrained and unlikable. Like both Scott and Cameron's "Alien" and "Aliens", this movie has an android (artificial person) as a principal character, in a role much fuller than in the earlier movies. The only thing which distinguishes 'David', Michael Fassbender's android from Scott's earlier android Ash (Ian Holm, Alien) and Cameron's Bishop (Lance Hendrickson, Aliens)is that David is ever so slightly stilted, somewhat like Data from "Startrek, The Next Generation." I will give this the benefit of the doubt for now, but I found a strong disjoint in the rationale between two early scenes and the climax. I sense Scott wanted to leave plenty of meat on the bone to support a sequel. (In contrast, Avatar is almost totally devoid of preparation for a sequel I suspect I will need to revisit this review after seeing the film again. If my suspicion about gaps and disconnects is born out, I may have to lower my rating to 3 stars.

I love this movie. I loved Alien and I like this one even more. This one has a grander story than Alien and to me is more interesting. Spoiler Warning: The black goo is more dangerous than the xenomorphs and more interesting because depending on what organic creature you combine it with it will have a different monster result. The Fifield mutant seemed stronger than a xenomorph. It also seemed easier to kill a facehugger over the hammerpede or snake like alien since that thing can regenerate so quickly. A lot of people say that the biologist was very dumb, but I didn't mind that because there are people in real life who confront dangerous animals without fear. For example "The Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell (May he rest in peace) was similar to that. Not dumb in my opinion but fearless and very fascinated with animals especially a new alien speices. That's how that biologist struck me. He also told Fifield to stay calm and I feel that's how most animal handlers have to be in order not to rile up the animal. I also thought there were no plot holes. Of course the movie didn't answer all the questions, but it did it in the right way, leaving it to your imagination. There are also planned sequels to the movie to answer many questions. The scientists Holloway and Shaw come to the conclusion based on ancient wall carvings/drawings all over the world (I've seen youtube documentaries about that subject) that all pretty much appear the same illustrate man communicating with aliens. Or an alien pointing to planets. They search (probably with high tech equipment) the universe and come across a galaxy that is similar to ours and form the same set of planets like the ancient cave artwork. And the planet they land on LV-223 is not the same planet as the one in Alien which was LV-426 so that's why it doesn't exactly end with someone in the jockey chair with their chest burst outwards. There are other examples, but basically I think this movie was perfectly paced and had no plot holes. I liked all the characters, every one of them and I enjoyed the script by Damon Lindelof. Great movie, I hope more people will realize it's genius over time.

It's an easy movie to criticize, but it doesn't deserve it. I'm not giving the fifth star because it's absolutely perfect. But, given the way it fits with the Alien films, but goes in new directions, this really is one of the great recent science fiction films. A lot of people have criticized a number of the "campy"/bonehead plot devices the film contains. I think the funniest is the one about the worst direction to run if a giant rolling, round spaceship is about to crush you (hilarious). But it's easy to criticize some of the shallower holes or weak links in the plot and not acknowledge the healthy condition of the broad bones of the plot structure. What made Alien (and the Alien series) great was plot structure and concept (and Ridley Scott's skillful execution of it). The thrills and chills were there because of the combination of realism and symbolism in the plot--because it was good science fiction. Science fiction has always been a lot more symbolic than scientific, and it was the ability of the creature to hold so much symbolic weight that made it so frightening, not just the art and special effects. Prometheus builds on this symbolic complexity by looking out into space (the divine unknown) not for the supreme anti-human force this time (Alien's alien), but for the "divine" origins of human beings. It's interesting. Scott makes the puzzle about these divine-human creatures (the engineers in Prometheus) as compelling as the creature in Alien. A little more intellectual and less visceral--but pretty similar. It is structured as a brainy science fiction film. Science fiction has always been about heavy symbolism in a high-energy, pulpy package. So I'm fine with unexplained spider zombie characters, and blatant, thin, pulpy, gore-y plot devices (in fact I enjoy them, think they're essential for the genre and overall effect, and would miss them if they were gone), as long as the backbone of the film is solid. And it is. Naomi Rapace's character is solid, and Michael Fassbender's. And guess who's left at the end of the film? Only the characters that mattered. Plus it's visually beautiful. And the way Scott weaved in so many Alien concepts into an original story in a way that built the whole thing up into a broader and still consistent world-- instead of dragging it down --is also extremely impressive. This movie will be appreciated a lot more a few years down the road. And even more so if a good sequel follows.

I found this to be a wonderful, deeply philosophical action movie that leads us to think about our own existence , our uniqueness in the universe and our ultimate relevance. I think many have a problem because the role of God is left to our speculation, but this actually elevates Deity beyond human understanding--just where It should be. The feeling of aloneness this leaves makes us shudder before the Here and Now. Our immediate progenitors are spacemen who apparently have scorn for us and want to wipe us out, to denude Earth of human life. Strong as they are, they are mortal, and they can be eaten alive just as humans have been in previous Alien films by something they wished to use to wipe out humanity. Yes, humans perform some silly deeds in this film--just as humans often do. We wouldn't have tragedy if humans always acted perspicaciously. The point is that we're human, and although we can be brilliant, we can also be very impulsive and foolish. I don't see that the plot shows anything other than human fallibility and a fragility of intellect under the pressure of emotions such as fear, lust for power and superiority and sexual abandon. Finally, we are led to ask why we are here, why our "engineers" (creators) have found us wanting and where do we go from here? Where are you, God? We need you! The 3-D is glorious, the effects stupendous. I couldn't have asked for more. I saw it with an adult goddaughter who had asked to see it, and she couldn't stop saying "wow!". I think that, if you've seen this in 2-D, you owe it to yourself to see it in 3-D. The PQ is sharp, clear, revealing of detail, and the audio is perfect. We played it on my Oppo on a 55" passive system LG with a 7.1 home theater setup. Much better than being in the theater. Don't let the naysayers dissuade you. This is a truly fine film which will ultimately rank up there with Ridley's best. It makes us long to know how we can somehow make ourselves count for more than "teardrops in the rain".

After watching the exhaustive pre-production, post production footage, and deleted and alternate scenes that were included on the bluray for Prometheus, I am left wondering what the hell Ridley Scott was thinking when he edited this movie. "I'm going to put three cameras on this and shoot the crap out of it.", that's basically what I took from the interviews with Ridley. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan. I probably like more of his movies than the average moviegoer but wow. I think he got lost in the editing of this movie. All the character moments in the movie were willfully deleted. I think if I were an actor in this film, I would probably wonder what happened to my performance. I don't want everything spoonfed to me but dang. It helps my enjoyment of a film if I think the people walking around on camera have some semblance of personality. All the characters were de-emphasized basically. While I didn't agree with Ridley Scott's editing choices and would have preferred a longer and more complete film, I did agree with his stance on shooting every special effect practically (in camera, with actors, puppets, models, animatronics, etc) where possible. One choice in particular between a digital monster and an actor in makeup, I think, made complete sense. If only that decisiveness carried over to the editing process... Woe is me. Actually, I name him in the review since he's the director, but Ridley Scott is hardly alone in this problematic film venture. There were hundreds of people working on this film and they were all drinking the same Kool-Aid. From a production and costume design standpoint, beautiful work. Stunts, excellent. Digital artwork and effects, excellent. Cinematography, excellent. But in the face of all that good work, everyone (behind the camera, so to speak) dropped the ball telling the story. I get the impression that Ridley Scott would think up cool sequences (whether it's just shooting sequences or actual action/effect sequences) and then tell the script-doctors to find a way to fit it into the thing which would be fine, if it wasn't seemingly at the expense of having a cast and a story. All of this uneven handling of the film that I've described above is mercilessly compounded by the fact that the movie is raising questions about religion, God, and creation. The way Prometheus was sold to audiences (in some instances as, "HEY! ALIEN PREQUEL!!!", and in others as an intense, scary, edge-of-your-seat thriller) didn't do well to prepare moviegoers for what ended up being some overwrought navel-gazing. But that's not all! No, religious/spiritual debate (at least in the U.S.) has also to a large extent, regressed to the point of embarrassment. Pope Francis aside, there are a lot of close-minded individuals running around out there and probably none of them want to be told that aliens (accidentally?) created mankind. While Scott should have by no means catered to this low common denominator, he should have been conscious of the fact that he was already pulling a bait-and-switch on the hardcore Alien(s) crowd, and that stacking Space Jesus on top of that was maybe a bad combination. Or hey, maybe it would have been as simple as putting as much effort into the ad campaign as was put into the supplemental material on the DVD release and other frivolous pursuits like the Weyland Industries website (it's still up). I still found things to like in this movie, but I'm keenly aware that I am in the minority. I admire what Ridley and co. tried to do and I love that so much interpretation is left up to the audience in terms of getting "answers", but ultimately Prometheus suffered horribly in the entertainment value department due to an overall lack of a clear vision and a sense of direction for the story. I'm sure I'm also in the minority for hoping that the planned(?) sequel knocks it out of the park and renders all the various hand-wringing over Prometheus more or less moot. (Read as: Don't run away from sci-fi as a genre, Ridley. I want you to succeed.) Quick notes: I didn't care that Prometheus wasn't more explicitly tied into the Alien franchise/mythology. Also, I didn't mind the slower pace of the movie (another reason why I think the length of the film being extended would not have hurt it overall). These are things that may bother others (you) so I suppose that is my disclaimer. Other points of interest: the 4-disc set includes the digital 3D release, the Bluray release, the standard DVD release and two digital copies (Ultraviolet and iTunes). All the special features (and there's a lot of them; set aside a good three or four hours and hit "play all" if that's what you're into) are included on the bluray so even when it's just Ridley Scott sipping wine and stalking the art department, it's in glorious true HD. The only thing that's missing is a 4K edition.

Where do I start? Do I praise the visual effects and amazingly detailed sets? Do I call out the haters and point out that the bulk of their complaints were based on the movie not being what they thought it'd be? What about the epic 7.1 soundtrack and score? The ferocious Noomi Rapace? The synthetic David? The fact that the Prometheus ship looks like a Firefly on steroids? There are a few hundred reviews that wrongly wax on plot elements and acting. Here's the film AND the BD review: This IS an ALIEN movie. We are watching the start of it all. While the film takes place in the same meta-plot, it is easy to see the creatures presented being some how related to xenomorphs... maybe with a dose or two of Cthulhu mentality - tentacles a plenty. The BD release has some great features by way of deleted scenes (some that might have done better to have been kept in the film), commentary tracks (Ridley Scott pretty much narrates the film, but it's not as bad as it sounds; he gets really excited about this film), and a background featurette that focuses on Wayland. The visuals are amazing on an up-to-date BD player, and as I said, we get the treat of 7.1 (which shook my apartment, literally, at normal volumes; so be mindful of the volume unless you want your photos and whatnots to get shaken off the walls at what you might consider a 'normal' volume). It's overpowering at points, but it sounds great despite the heft of it. Enjoy this for what it is - a long awaited reunion to the Alien epic universe. We're just going to be experiencing some elements that were never covered in the Alien franchise. Where does that leave us? Where else, but in the trusted hands of Mr. Ridley Scott. It seems this new trilogy is going to answer more than the questions left open by the film Prometheus. We're getting to see some answers that have gone unanswered for over 30 years. Key word there - some. I've waited this long; the promise of two more films in this series have me waiting, hopeful, that Mr. Scott can deliver the next movies on the same level that is Prometheus. Beautiful. Epic. Eerie. And more than a little... alien.