Ok me hearties, strap into your safety harness and prepare for take off!
Prometheus – I have been awaiting it for a long time and finally I’ve seen it. In 3D, which to be honest didn’t really blow me away. But the rest of the film kept me very thoroughly entertained and intrigued for its entire running time. A propos running time, this one came in at around the two and a half hour mark, which didn’t feel too long at all.
For those who have been locked in a stasis chamber: Prometheus is the prequel to the original Alien series and deals with the original mission of a human craft to the home world of our supposed ancestors, the “Engineers”. Those travelling there all have their motives for doing so, motives that obviously will lead to conflict. The story unfolds well, a bit slowly at first, but as it’s sci fi I’m always willing to have some ground rules explained.
The tension builds gradually and does ask for both patience and some willingness to suspend disbelief. Especially the way the entire crew seems comprised of ill disciplined misfits that go into a weird abandoned strucure willy nilly begs some serious script questions. But hey, it just gets better from there, so quit complaining!
To divulge more about the story line would bring us close to spoiler territory so I’ll just say that in general a couple of major plot points were still up for discussion as the audience left the cinema, which goes a long way in explaining the mediocre reviews the film has enjoyed so far. But I just assume these queries will be handled in the inevitable sequel; to me at least they didn’t spoil this picture at all.
Some special mentions:
First special mention goes to the unsung heroes of such films, the art directors/set designers. It was all really great, a total immersion into a sci fi world, with plenty of nods to the original Alien series. A fine mix of hi and lo tech and good believable costume and special effects.
Then Michael Fassbender, proving once again that he is head and shoulders above the rest of his crop. A brilliant, mysterious role as the cyborg/android David 8 – with a chilling own agenda, or not? For me the star of the picture, and perhaps even the actual lead?
Finally kudos to both Charlize Theron and Idris Elba both providing really strong support. I found Guy Pearce strangely off, and am still wondering about Noomi Rapace who took care of the actual lead role. No Sigourney Weaver here alas.
All in all, I could go on gushing for 400 further words, but instead I’ll just say: go see the thing. Even the missus loved it, which is saying a lot considering what she asked me during the opening titles: “So this is the prequel to Star Trek, right?”