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Monday 3 September 2012

Prometheus





I loved Alien and Aliens, hated Alien 3 and thought that Alien: Resurection was a lot better than its predecessor (almost impossible not to be). When I heard the rumours of Ridley Scott stepping once more into the Giger-inspired universe of Aliens, I was really looking forward to watching his up-to-date vision of his cult series.  Unfortunately it appears to me that the production of the film became too diluted with multiple stories, as a consequence none of which stand out enough to be the main gist of what could have been a modern epic.
     All of the tools were at his disposal considering the attraction such a movie would have on all parts of the movie production world.  The effects are fantastic, the 3-d works reasonably well. Effects can be great in any film and 3-d is commonplace these days. The characters are a bit wishy-washy also, with no specific one that you look for to save the day or enjoy the interactions between characters. The best actor is Michael Fassbender who plays the cyborg role as good as, if not better than Lance Henriksen did in Aliens.  I believe he could be the next James Bond, but that's another story.
     Where the film lets itself down is that it isn't clear what story it is telling.  Whatever Ridley Scott's original intention was with the storyline, I fear he has succumbed to studio pressure. I'm not that fussed about the plot holes as I think they were due to the story dilution.  I can see Scott explaining his story to the execs whilst they're constantly saying "Aliens, aliens, the public want aliens." I would have expected Scott to stamp his mark on this production and say "This is what I want this film to be about. This is the story I want to tell and this is how I am going to reference the predecessors."
     Okay, it isn't called Alien: Prometheus. But I certainly expected, and I know a lot of other people did too,  that the film would tie-up the space jockey query.  It did.  I expected it to say how the aliens started and it did.  But that is all. How we got to those answers could have been so much less complicated and the main story would have been much more solid.  Instead of ending as it did, with no doubt a further diluted follow-up, it could have been a film on its own, complete and worthy to be part of the Alien family.  As a consequence it is probably a good thing that "Alien" isn't in the title because it isn't worthy. It's okay, but that's about it.  A victim of over-hype, a victim of its predecessor's success.  Game over man, game over.

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