I liked the geologist

Rating: 6/10 (1 August 2012)

I don't have much to add to what the best-voted amateur critics have already been screaming about, only that it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I went to a see it fortified against the underwhelming "sciency" bits, the bad character and plot writing, the ridiculous end of the "surgery" scene etc. If you grant that this movie is fantasy eye-candy, not sci-fi - because it seems anything interesting in that department comes from the left field, like Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" and Duncan Jones's "Moon" - it's possible to find something enjoyable besides the predictably great visuals. Looking at it from a certain social angle helps.
Everyone - yeah, really - is complaining how unlikable/unlikely the characters are. That's true, but it hasn't kept me from rooting for them, even if it was equally or more enjoyable to watch them get bumped off. Obviously these guys are interchangeable parts in a highly competitive, dehumanized corporate environment, with a genuine butt for a boss who openly wants the mission to fail, so she probably didn't pick the brightest spoons in the set to begin with. Nothing new here - take the 1980's anti-big corporation meme that Alien 1 made so fashionable and apply it to a set of scientologists (oops, the script calls them scientists) instead of a glorified flying warehouse crew. In space no-one hears you complain now, whether you're working class or intellectual snob. Is it any wonder these folks are so messed up? I hereby admit being one of the two persons who liked the geologist, he's sort of the anti-hero in this social nightmare by being so human, and such a dumb ass. Verily, there are no role models aka easily identifiable "character arc" clichés, which you can take as bad writing or meant deliberately. None of them is particularly interesting, but I felt like I knew or remembered these people from a bad dream involving my future career prospects. Many of us may feel we're surrounded by morons a lot of the time, but we still have to get along with them, so probably "Prometheus" is dual wish fulfillment for me, empathizing with the people you're stuck with and waiting to see them get surgically removed. I found all the "erratic" behavior totally convincing, that's how real people function.
Speaking of removal, what bothered me unexpectedly was the bad self-quotation - the "Ripley" log entry - at the end. Quoting yourself means you're really getting old. Hey, I'd almost forgotten Ridley Scott did the first Alien movie (irony intended). With all its flaws "Prometheus" has enough original ideas to stand for itself, a different (predictably female) heroine and thrust. Since it seems preordained we shall some day see part 2 of this story, I hope the Ripleygrams stay at a minimum or disappear altogether, like in a future "Director's Cut' that for once cuts what shouldn't be in there. Giger's alien emerging from between a superhuman caucasoid and a giant squid is enough of a tease to make me watch the Alien series again, one day.