Needlessly complicated mess

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2012)

I went to see Prometheus today, although even before I saw it, I knew this film was going to disappoint me.
In that respect, I guess I should only blame myself for the loss of two hours in which I could have had more fun, for less money.
Where to start? Well let's start with the original Alien. That movie has made a big impression on almost any Sci-Fi fan I know, and I have been wondering a lot why that is. Watching Prometheus today has answered that question conclusively.
Alien was great because it wasn't complicated. It had a small crew on a spaceship, fighting an alien. One by one the members of the crew get killed, and in the end kick-ass Ripley manages to kill the alien. Simple, self-contained, and claustrophobic. Add to that great acting performances by a cast made up of brilliant actors, and you have the perfect classic.
Now we come to Prometheus. For some reason they decided to take the alien story, and try to turn it into the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Since we already know that that answer is 42, the exercise seems pointless, but okay, I'll try to be nice.
The thing is though, instead of answering any questions scientifically, we get this vague cross-over between Erich von Däniken's paleo-SETI theory and questions about God as our creator. I'm pretty sure the whole Von Däniken thing has been done, and I'm even more sure that a lot of Sci-Fi fans are not exactly into creationism. So why these two premisses are thrown into this movie is beyond me. As the reviews on this site show, if anything, those ideas offended a lot of the audience this type of movie is aimed at. To add insult to injury, the story leaves a lot of the questions it hints at completely unanswered, leaving viewers who do get into the human origin story frustrated.
Moving on, the acting is a mixed bag. Fassbender is great as the android, and Rapace and Theron are quite good as well. Given a better script they could have made this movie great. Unfortunately they're not given a lot to work with in terms of believable dialogue. The rest of the cast play as if they're extras in an episode of Torchwood, and ruin a lot of the scenes they're in. The performance of Logan Marshall-Green was absolutely terrible as Rapaces boyfriend. They're supposed to be scientists. He acts the part as if he is a male underwear model.
The effects are of course top-notch, and the 3d isn't as annoying as it could have been. The styling is esthetically pleasing, and reminiscent enough of the old Alien movie to convince me that in that department, a lot of people cared for the superior original. Why the script writers, and Ridley Scott himself didn't show the same integrity to the original masterpiece is a mystery, they could have made a movie with a lot of suspense and tension. But, as so many remakes, sequels, and prequels do, they went for the false premiss that if bigger is better, much bigger is much better.
I didn't expect a movie as good as Alien, or Aliens. But Prometheus, for all the pompous posturing it does, is nothing but an empty shell, devoid of any lasting impact.