Have Spaights and Lindelof become hack writers?

Rating: 4/10 (9 June 2012)

First of all, let me say that the visuals in Prometheus are great, so it deserves a cinema viewing. The film tries to thrill us and explain the 'Alien' mythology at the same time. However, there are some short-cuts and confusion in the script. These hint that the original ideas, or drafts of the script, were too ambitious for the movie to handle. Given the scriptwriting talent available, this is disappointing.
The acting is good. Noomi Rapace grew on me during the film. Michael Fassbinder's droid is acted perfectly. Idris Alba is the everyman we like to root for.
Charlize Theron is the best thing in the movie. Given limited screen time, her character hints at complexity and depth. A film centred around her character would have been compelling. She has never looked so beautiful on screen. She is an Oscar winner who deserved a better vehicle for her talents.
The failing in the film for me is that the 'suspension of disbelief' gets trashed over the course of it. First, there is the introduction of a careless, unprofessional crew. This includes a brutish, dysfunctional idiot who has somehow, we are expected to believe, been selected for a pioneering deep space mission. Some fifteen year-olds might have no problem with this, but I'm an adult.
Co-trashing the film is the contemptuous reintroduction of characters that the camera tells you are dead. It is a lazy plot device. Surely the writer of 'Lost' can do better than this? The re-introductions are purely for shock value. Disappointingly, in none of these scenarios is the tension allowed to BUILD SLOWLY. Hitchcock or Spielberg it ain't.
The beginning of a film should suck the viewer in to believe in a credible alternative world. Before the ship lands on the alien world, we are doing well on that point.
But, when the crew first assemble together they become a metaphor for the film's script. The crew have been so hastily cobbled together they are disjointed as a collective. They don't even know each other!
But this could not happen. Any crew would train together for months, just as in the Apollo missions. Respect would be forged and competencies and procedures deeply ingrained - to ensure survival.
But not in Ridleyworld!
Having just arrived, they openly insult each other! It is clear that no-one with a science background came anywhere near the script. Some of the crew are just not credible as members of a professional elite. To be fair, this is a feature of the Alien movies in general.
To make it worse (I'm English), the fatuous no-class insulting moron character is from the working class of London. Ridley Scott succeeds in transplanting his snobbery into deep space, the far future, and mainstream American culture all at the same time! Way to go Ridley! A real working class lad who had worked his way up to an elite space mission through the discipline of science degrees would have talent and class to burn. But not in Ridleyworld.
Come to think of it, with our 'economy', how would any Englishmen get into space? Was there a second British Empire in the 2080s? I think not! We had enough of the last one, thanks! We even cancelled Blue Streak in the 1950s! They said it could have been a space rocket, but really I think it was just a large firework. Shouldn't half the astronauts have been Chinese?
Another lazy plot device: to make something 'interesting' happen, just throw in some 'unexpected' behaviour. It a hack's trick. Good writers show class by developing things. Any lingering suspension of disbelief was killed off for me when one of the characters discovered an alien...
Did the trained astronaut OBEY ORDERS and leave it alone? - No! Did they even radio back for advice? - No! Did they attempt a scientific description? - No! Did they run like hell? - No!
So, what did they do then?
Well, they grinned at it! Yep, that's right. Grinned at it. That is not a misprint. Then, they approached it! But that wasn't enough. Oh no. They made cooing noises at it. COOING NOISES Then, they talked to it in baby language. Did it even look like a baby then? Well it slithered,and was covered in slime...
Now, do any of you out there think this is what NEIL ARMSTRONG would have done?
God help us.