For at least a solid week, I've been hearing about how Prometheus was going to either be the Second Coming of filmmaking, or the biggest disappointment since Greedo fired first. With that kind of build-up, I figured that I'd absolutely walk out of the film with at least some kind of fodder for today's blog post.
And I've got nothing, folks.
The movie was pretty to look at, but other than that, it left me completely apathetic. I've seen worse movies that inspired enough passionate hate for two or three posts. I've seen better movies that have had me talking for days.
And with Prometheus, my only reaction is that it's stupid to waste so much hate on Damon Lindelof, because it's clear Ridley Scott made the movie he wanted to make. Love it or hate it, this is Scott's vision.
The movie seems to want to inspire big questions, profound questions, but despite that deliberate ambiguity, I walked out completely indifferent to the answers.
But in surfing the web, I heard an... interesting theory that's only vaguely hinted at by the movie itself. I don't know if it really counts as a spoiler because it comes from something Ridley Scott said at a press conference. (Which is a whole separate issue - if one has to go to outside sources to get this major a clue about what the film means, there's something wrong.)
In the film, we learn that a race of aliens that seemingly seeded the Earth and other worlds thousands of years ago. When the expedition follows clues that lead them to one of those alien installations, they find that most of the beings there were killed about 2000 years ago by.... something. Later clues indicate that "something" is the result of some bioweapons engineering.
Later still, we learn that these "bio-weapons" were going to be sent to Earth. And when the Engineer Aliens come face to face with the human team, they do NOT react well to their presence. It is one of the movie's unanswered mysteries as to why the Engineers would make humanity and then try to destroy it.
Did I mention the film is explicitly set at Christmas? Because that's a clue to what is being called "The Crucifixion Theory." The basic idea is that 2000 years ago, humans angered the aliens by killing Christ, so the Engineer aliens created a biological weapon that would eventually evolve into the Aliens we know from the rest of the series.
Really.
Some ideas are just way too goofy to work in a movie. That's one of them. Honestly, if they'd made THAT more explicit, I might have walked out of the film with more of a reaction. (A BAD one, but still, a reaction.)
Still, I can't ignore that many people had much more of a reaction than I did. Drew McWeeny over at Hit-Fix has put together an interesting article addressing a lot of points that people have left the movie wondering about. Check it out here.
I found it more coherent second time around. It's not a classic by any means, but the second viewing mitigated a *few* of the more extreme reactions I had to it first time.
ReplyDeleteI can say this for it; I haven't thought about a film this much after seeing it since Inception. That may not be a good thing, but it's sure as hell made an impact.
Goofy ... you mean like the original Alien sending a radio message to Earth in the end of the first film?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed myself, mainly since I've always been a fan of most of the Alien franchise. I just saw this as another chapter in the book. Plenty of stuff to think about, but not everyone is ready to dissect the fictional universe. A lot of my friends didn't like it, but when I asked them if they saw the other Alien movies, most admitted to not have.
ReplyDeleteA scene more directly implying Jesus was a representative sent by the Engineers (our creators) as Scott talked about in an interview would have improved the movie. At least then there's a reason they are so upset, and the other religious ideas in the movie have more meaning. As it is, they feel like what they are: leftovers.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the unanswered questions or theories behind the story. I just couldn't stand how stupid all the characters were. We're on an alien world, but the air is breathable, so lets just take off our helmets. Nothing else we have to worry about. Two of our men are trapped in this building. They're fine, I'm goign to go get some. Hey, a translucent snake in the room where the last creatures died. Let's make friend with it. Stupidest scientists ever.
ReplyDeleteI can't find the link now, but Scott said that the original cut was 2:27 long. The release was 1:59 long. So the other 30 minutes probably allows the movie to make sense.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I thought it was a fun ride, gorgeous to look at, exp in IMAX 3D. But the story was really weak.
Like, why did David infect the guy, then he just has himself burned to death. That was subplot that went no where.
I'm looking forward to seeing the directors cut to figure out what it all meant.