I finally saw Prometheus, and I was probably as confused as everyone else. Now this film has gotten a lot of criticism from everyone, and if there's bitching about a movie, I must be involved, so I saw it.
First of all, I'm kind of surprised Prometheus was this appealing to people. The name doesn't scream franchise like "The Avengers" or "The Hunger Games" does, and it wasn't even like 100% clear if it was a prequel to Alien. Nevertheless a bunch of people were looking forward to it, and eventually it came out and sparked a bunch of complaints.
The opening scene turned me off. Big-time. The opening shot might as well be 2001: A Space Odyssey's opening shot, except less interesting. I suppose if you're going to steal from a science fiction movie, steal from the best, but it just really turned me off. Following that there were a bunch of shots of an apparent alien landscape, and then the introduction to our film's first character: a big ripped albino humanoid alien thing that drinks a bubbly liquid and dies in the most horrible way. This had me laughing uncontrollably because it's just ridiculous and so bizarre. That wasn't a good sign for this movie from the beginning. You might think this scene would make sense later, but not really. It just kind of happened.
Now eventually the plot kicks in, and it's the exact same plot as 2001: A Space Odyssey--a team of scientists travel throughout the universe to go to a specific spot that appears to have connections with the origins of humanity. And then there's a guy named Dave wandering around a spaceship alone, while everyone else is in hypersleep or whatever. Sound familiar? That's because it's from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The team of scientists--most of which act like idiots--arrive at this moon or planet or thing and go explore this seemingly non-God-made structure. And here's where it gets confusing as hell. Almost nothing following this makes sense.
While I've been mostly negative on this movie so far, I must say I enjoyed it. It was good, but far from great. Some of the scenes worked really well and there were some great make-up and visual effects, and some good performances.
Some weird shit happens and some people die in more horrible ways, one important one being unexplained. It's an infection and don't ask questions. And someone's mutated and kills other people. It doesn't make sense but it's interesting to watch. And then the main character, Elizabeth Shaw, is pregnant with an alien thing and in horrible pain. Despite her not being in pain until after she is told she's pregnant, her desperate attempt to get rid of the fetus thing is the most disgusting, disturbing, frightening, and also the best scene of the film.
Then later they find one of those albino things alive, and it's clear that it's of the race that created humans, and is also human, based on its DNA. Which is interesting, considering pre-humans didn't have human DNA. In a movie that has the main character being an archaeologist, I expect some goddamn archaeology research to be done.
As far as the characters, there's not much. Noomi Rapace struggles with her British accent as the lead character, whose only trait is that she kind of has a religious faith. There's the beautiful Charlize Theron as some bitch who might as well be an alien. Let me put it this way; after I win an Oscar, I hope to get better roles than Theron. There's a biologist and geologist who are both total idiots and were created for one reason: to be killed. The captain, although he's kind of a minor character, is probably the most interesting, except for of course Michael Fassbender as the robot dude. Fassbender is one of the best actors working today, and many claim his performance in Shame was the best of 2011.
The film is a bit anti-climactic and it doesn't end. Upon the ending, you'll wonder why the movie was even made. Overall, however, it's pretty good. It makes you think, which is what the best science fiction films do. I've mentioned 2001 numerous times in this review and while this film had a similar plot and ideas, the biggest difference is certainly the ending. While both films' endings are left open, one feels 2001: A Space Odyssey at least had a point to make.
I thought it was decent. I'm sure it's not for everybody, as its plot is overly complicated and there are some gross-out moments.
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