It's no ALIEN!

Rating: 6/10 (9 June 2012)

Alien was a unique film. Unlike today's sci-fi blockbusters which rely on computer-generated effects, loud eyeball-blasting, eardrum-splitting explosions, Alien took a different approach. What made Alien work so well was QUIET, SIMPLE TERROR. Special effects were kept to a minimum. Not one gun was fired. Mood, plot, and character development were everything. The storyline was SIMPLE...The crew goes out to investigate a signal. They unknowingly bring back an alien life form which proceeds to kill off crew members one by one. That's it. SIMPLE! We, the audience, sat and witnessed the TERROR build with QUIET intensity in Ridley Scott's masterpiece, which, in my estimation, will always be the perfect film. Unfortunately, there will never be another like it. Switch to Prometheus, which is everything Alien wasn't. I really wanted to like Prometheus and I entered the theater with every expectation that I would love it. After all it was Ridley Scott. However the plot was so incredibly convoluted I started to get bored. From the outset, I was confused. Who was the alien? What did he drink? Why? What happened to him? Why? What did that scene have to do with anything? When a movie starts off with a bunch of unanswered questions and continues on that path, it's usually a bad sign. It was. I sat there watching scene after disconnected scene as my disappointment grew. Disappointment - not terror or suspense. Where was the intensity? There was none! Not even twelve hours have passed since I saw Prometheus, and, in my mind, it is already a forgotten film. Too bad Ridley. I expected so much more.