Promethean Expectation

It’s an overcast day.  You see a field of green lined with dark rock outcrops.  The grass is so green you still see it after you look away from the screen. You rub your eyes and it doesn't go away, such is the power of that GREEN.  The rough texture of the rock is so detailed you rub your eyes to make sure it’s actually real. 

The camera swoops over the vista like a great Pterodactyl but instead of a shriek there is a massive, swelling,  orchestral boom.  The scene changes to a lake so reflective you can see the last ten years of your life playing out on its surface like a two and half acre plasma screen. 

Then it all becomes clear:  a brilliant shaft of white, dusty light from an unknown source pierces a dark place and casts ominous shadows in every direction.  All at once, you know EXACTLY where you are and why you are there…

Welcome…. To the latest Ridley Scott film. 

How could you not want to go see Prometheus? 

Ridley Scott returning to the film that propelled him to greatness after more than 30 years away, one of the most terrifying monsters ever filmed, the fifth film in a series with two interesting if flawed sequals, a cool actress (Noomi Rapace), and veiled promises to answer some of the franchise’s most tantalizing questions? 

Did we even need to discuss it?  It’s a no brainer, send my ticket in the mail.  Charge my card…

Except I started to think about how my expectations would change my perception.  I know some people who religiously avoid ANY prior information about a movie before seeing it, and I respect their ability to judge a film based on as little hype as possible. 

Not me.  I like to read reviews.  Time and money are locked up in higher priorities and I don’t have enough of either to throw at mediocre movies like when I was in college and went to three movies in a weekend because, you know, it was important. 

My expectations, through a conscious effort on my part, were pretty low for Prometheus, which colors the entire experience. 

Really? 

Challenge #1: Using it for a Coors light ad, really? 

Challenge #2: The Xenomorph was not going to make much of an appearance.  

Challenge #3: The premise is we were created by “engineers” from deep space.  Meh.  Saw that on the Speculation Channel, er, I mean the History Channel. 

Challenge #4: Does LOST scribe Damon Lindleoff have an exit strategy for this story, or will the casts of the previous Alien movies meet in a non-denominational church at the end?

Challenge #5:  Is it SMART to try to make this franchise too… smart? Is this the right series of films to examine big questions of origin, purpose, and destiny?    Should Ridley Scott really try to channel Stanley Kubrick here?  Is he up to that type of filmmaking? 

Yes, I know he made the 57 varieties of Blade Runner but look beyond that and it starts to thin out a little.  Black Rain?  Matchstick Men?  1492?  Hannibal?  Kingdom Of Heaven?

None of these movies were bad, but I’ve always found his work to be so large and lifeless, gorgeous filmmaking supporting not much story and good actors in robotic roles.

Challenge #6: Prequels have very little margin for error.  Will the mysterious questions from the first Alien have satisfying answers that don’t seem forced?  Is KNOWING something as powerful as NOT KNOWING? 

The 1^st Alien film was an exception for Scott:  a brilliant exercise in building tension with simplicity, surprise, and set design.  It started slow and hammered home two fantastic plot points that propelled the story and action forward while introducing the ALIEN.  It raised its questions and answered the ones it had to.  

Therefore, the mysteries were there to enhance the story… not to be rabbit trailed. 

The horror was captured in a giant, steel ship hunted by a horrifying monster inside and a trillion miles of space vacuum trying to kill you outside of it.  And somewhere out there, the people who should be helping you care more about the things trying to kill you. 

Even we, the audience, so transfixed by this new monster, can easily forget the people on board in comparison to its ridiculously fascinating biology. 

Truly, the movie could be summed up by its great tagline, “In space, no one can hear you scream.” 

In Aliens, the theme is the same, even if Jim Cameron exchanged atmospheric horror for 80’s action extravaganza.  In space, no one can hear you cry, “Game Over, Man!” 

Same in Alien 3: In Space Jail, no one cares if you scream.  

Alien 4: In space, no one can help you because you are a monster. 

Promotheus expands it even further:  In space, your Creator wants to Destroy you!   

OK, I’m being glib here.

There are many excellent scenes in Prometheus, great tension and mystery with the same wonderful atmosphere only Ridley Scott is able to conjure from his cinematic tool box.  It feels familiar, but in a good way, like visiting an old friend you haven’t seen in a while.  Even if the friend is a little… confused?  

  

Prometheus opens with an intriguing scene of an “Engineer” destroying himself on a Pre-Cambrian earth and thus causing the chain of events that eventually bring forth our hero scientists who discover the engineer’s existence via cave paintings and recruit a creepy old trillionaire to fund them into the vast reaches of space. 

They arrive on the planet and after some great set design and creepy camerawork all hell breaks loose.  As it should. 

The movie is most successful when two things happen: David the android is onscreen and when horrible things are happening to the characters.  David is the one shining example of how good this movie should be, interesting that the robot is the most complex character in a cast of mostly single minded human beings. 

The most interesting character in the film

The horror scenes are reminiscent of earlier Alien films with a dollop of early Cronenberg body horror to spice things up.  When people get offed in this movie, they feel it… and so do we.  Vicarious suffering all over the place.  

I love the scene with the giant Engineer head on the table.  Alien dissections are fascinating: the right mix of science and fiction, and Prometheus has a doozy.   Later on, an automated C-section is even more visceral and disturbing. 

There are other gems: a silica storm, nifty technology, and new monsters to behold. The endless vases of black slime are more than creepy... it's like bottled sin and death on an evolutionary scale.  Mysterious and awe-inspiring. 

 I left the theater surprised and overall satisfied. 

Until I started to think about it.

You know how, when you watched the Star Wars prequels and you thought, “This is OK and all, but something is very, very wrong…” So you start to think about it and the movies get bad in a hurry.  

The new “mysteries” that arise from Prometheus start to feel like less a mystery and more like sloppy loose ends (but they whip around like tentacles so I guess it’s a push). 

Inevitably, Prometheus fails most of the challenges. 

Challenge #1 – Speaks for itself.   I could probably comment on how the marketing had a serious effect on the backlash against it, but I won’t because I don’t like marketing.  Even if I like the product. 

Challenge #2 – When my favorite acid bleeding being finally makes it to the screen, it is quite cool.  For about three seconds.  And the context of its birth makes little to no sense, at least scientifically, and is probably just there to appease the fan boys looking to read the Edith Hamilton Alien Mythology Handbook.  Or maybe just an Alien Wikipedia.  I don’t know.   

Challenge #3 – While the Engineers are interesting for a moment, the interest devolves because very little of what we see makes sense.  I understand not everything needs to make sense, but in a film that claims to contemplate such things it doesn’t offer much of anything substantial.  Except monsters, grotesque death and an interesting android. 

 Challenge #4 –  I guess I will have to wait for the inevitable sequels and hope history does not repeat.

Challenge #5 – Alien was one of the best horror films of all time because it was so simple and effective at what it wanted to do.  Scare you.  This movie tries to be too much.  This ain’t Tree of Life or 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It divides the movie into two unequal parts: an atmospheric science fiction film and a monster movie in space.  Ridley Scott creates realistic, textured worlds, not visual poetry to make a statement on the origin and meaning of life. 

Challenge #6 – No.  Not knowing is almost always more exciting, more psychologically satisfying than trying to build a mythology that explains everything.  Let me elaborate... even if I'm wrong and there is a specific reason for every decision in this film... I think I would rather not know everything.  

So, in the end, Prometheus is a large, beautifully filmed,  interesting science fiction film with horror elements.  It makes goo goo eyes at those big questions, but doesn’t really engage them in a meaningful way. 

Regardless, go see it anyway and enjoy it for what it is. 

***

YES, there is a reason for that large can of baking powder

One last thing... 

I recall watching a youtube video about Stanley Kubricks The Shining.  I felt the same way about The Shining that I do about Prometheus.  It was good… but something was missing.  I liked the novel better and the film, though technically brilliant, left me cold. 

But this youtube video, I wish I could find it again, explained EVERYTHING and my mind was blown.  

From simple visual cues I NEVER would have picked up on to explanations of events that flew over my head like so much air on a windy day, it made me realize that Kubrick never made an unimportant decision, or this reviewer thought way too much about The Shining.  I don’t know. 

So anyway… perhaps a youtube video will arrive soon that will explain all the decisions made in Prometheus. 

Any ideas? 

Don't ask me, I don't even think I was in ALL the Blade Runner Director's cuts....