Very "B Movie"

Rating: 5/10 (7 June 2012)

This is a highly frustrating film. Frustrating because it has such potential; such acting talent; such a budget; and smatterings of real success that all underlie what is essentially a highly adorned, highly hyped 'B Movie'. Firstly, I am often critical of Fassbender who I believe is a highly talented actor who allows himself to be cast in roles that he cannot adequately provide for. However, in this feature, Fassbender is positively glowing in his portrayal of 'David'. If you're looking for a reason to see this film, Fassbender provides the best justification. Charlize Theron exudes the frosty exterior she is so proficient at, but never steps out of her comfort zone. My real problem with the casting was Noomi Rapace who played the heroine, Ellie Shaw. Whoever the production team cast as lead role was always going to be struggling against the enduring potency of Weaver's performance in Alien, but Rapace portrayed a weak lead character in weaker manner than even the inner pessimist within me dreaded. Whilst I believe Rapace does have talent, this was definitely not the role for her and signals a real casting error - the role could have been portrayed far more effectively by someone such as Jennifer Connelly.
Scott appears to have become highly "Hollywood", disregarding the logical realities of a situation in favour of emotional impact to the detriment of the detail. For example, the characters continually remind each other of the cost of the "trillion dollar ship" yet display none of the training associated with a high stake, high cost mission: scientists basing their efforts on "faith"; irritating expedition members freaking out and deserting the team in uncharted, potentially dangerous locations; exploratory scientists exposing themselves to potentially harmful pathogens in a foreign environment for the thrill (because you've got to "live a little"); the captain, watching over two stranded scouts from the ship's bridge, leaving to have casual sex with the funding company's representative: a harsh, prudish woman who lives in an escape module, fears anything beyond her control and likes to "minimize risk" yet is perfectly happy to let the scruffy, dilettantish (and horribly cliché black boss) character woo her within 30 seconds of flaccid verbal sparring. One can guess which two characters take this moment to conveniently stumble upon hitherto unknown alien lifeforms which they decide to pet and stroke before suffering a gory murder. Ellie Shaw, having performed an emergency Cesarean upon herself to remove an alien life-form growing in her womb continues to run around with nothing but staples holding her sliced abdomen together, occasionally wincing or dropping to all fours for good measure, but still able to sprint away from a falling spaceship which despite weighing several thousands of tonnes strikes what can only be described as a small rock which through divine providence bears the weight and prevents Ellie from being crushed. Whilst these may sound like small, irksome little details, these are but a selection of many, and it's precisely details such as these that prevent this film from being the success previously brilliant sequels create the expectation for.
Another frustration with the film were its scene transitions. It very much felt as if stringent editing cuts had been made to various scenes, leading to a feeling that the film was paced wrong, with great detail spent on seemingly irrelevant dialogue which was possibly supposed to add depth to the bland characters, but actually detracted from the overall experience as the audience then had to endure jumps to different locations which were covered in skeleton detail, leaving the audience to presume a successful, uneventful or irrelevant set of events following the current and prior to the next scene, none of which are adjectives which I feel contributed to Scott's original success with Alien - quite the opposite indeed, I would venture.
My final grumble is that the film felt undecided as to how dark and poignant a message it intended to convey, with fairly simplistic, bland screenplay and scripting for the majority of the film and then intense moments of gore or small speck of sparkling philosophy, which, due to their isolation grew to feel almost pastiche and puerile. As a film which suggested in its advertising that it would challenge and question on a deep or somehow intellectual level, I felt as if the cerebral content was somehow absent, reducing the film to nothing more than your average sci-fi thriller and what's worse, branding itself unable to live up to its promises. Perhaps we have the industry to thank for this, for I am aware that "Fox was reluctant to invest [$250 Million], and wanted to ensure the film would receive a lower age-rating to broaden the potential audience" (Sky Movies, BSkyB) which always seems to dumb down and degrade the quality of offering due to the scope of intended audience.
If we look at any of the film greats - the Godfather, Requiem for a Dream, The Road, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Last Samurai, Gladiator - whilst they all contained their fair share of goofs and continuity errors, the scripts themselves and the details contained therein in both characterisation and plot, not the mention the direction and conveyance of said scripts, were ingrained and inscribed with absolute precision, depth, potency, focus and attention to detail which this film sorely lacks a great portion of. There are moments of success as one would expect from a film in the legacy of Alien, but they were shallow and oblique in comparison to the errors and annoyances that a poor script and average direction engendered. Due to this lack of care and stark lack of intellect in creating Prometheus, all but the most casual viewers will find this film frustrating, lacking atmosphere and unfortunately unable to live up to the name of its highly proclaimed forbears who look down in shame at Scott's valorous but ultimately fruitless attempt to expand upon their original success.
50%.