Prometheus

By: Addison Wylie

The crew members aboard the spacecraft Prometheus are looking for answers. Seeking explanations is a recurring theme throughout Ridley Scott’s sci-fi thriller. What the film challenges movie goers with is the idea that maybe not everything is meant to be solved. Maybe some quires are better left untouched.It isn’t a full-fledged crowd pleasing message. Movie goers may even be turned off from the film altogether because of its pro-bewilderment attitude. But, those who don’t take the message personally will find that Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof’s script deals with this thought-provoking material skillfully and in a well spoken way.

The discovery crew in Prometheus are seeking “Engineers”, beings from an ancient culture who inhabit outer space. These “Engineers” may hold secrets about how humanity was created and that immediately peeks the interest of archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (played by Logan Marshall-Green), two people who made a discovery about these “Engineers” and were the ones who founded this mission with the financial help of the Weyland Corporation.

The crew are made up of those usual suspects you’d find in a dark, ominous movie like this one and quite often the actors, as well as the dialogue, play a little too much into the stereotypes this ensemble is playing.

That said, the performances are still gripping because of the situations and how fascinatingly concealed they are. Each actor portrays that feeling of nervousness and uncertainty so well and reels us in with each scene. Same goes for those characters with ulterior motives who drop well played clues.

Ridley Scott is the perfect choice for a project of this caliber. Like Spaihts and Lindelof, Scott knows how to approach this storytelling without carrying a mallet to hammer in everything. He is able to have a tight direction on how the events and the climaxes unfold but is also able to let everything breathe and take form on their own.It’s also a blessing to have Scott return to a form he is obviously passionate for. Prometheus, in its own way, is a tribute to older science fiction. Using blood, gore, and slime only when called for, having the film take on a slow burning pace, even the costuming and the soft use of make-up is a nudge to those fashions we all thought the future would take on.

These never feel like rip-offs or Ridley Scott pulling the same rabbit out of his hat. It always feels like a warm welcoming for the esteemed director who is taking the norm and putting another interesting twist on things. For instance, that use of gory special effects are so well utilized and spaced out appropriately, that it makes an audience more squeamish and shocked when these R-rated elements are at the forefront.

Prometheus is one of those films I forgot was in 3D when my ticket was purchased. Like Scorsese in Hugo, this is a first outing for the director with this new-fangled technology. The 3D effects are akin to the subtleties in the script and in Scott’s direction. While watching the film, the 3D is never highlighted until a big action set piece. Then, it takes on an immersive feel and we see that the 3D is there to establish more detail in the settings as well as to let us know the exact scale of the thundering dangers. It takes a lot of skill to convince audiences that the 3D doesn’t exist only to blow us away with it moments later and then bring us back to that first mindset so quickly.

Prometheus is that film a lot of people have been waiting for. The people who’ve been waiting for a smart and fun Summer movie, those people who wanted to see that great modern Ridley Scott movie, and the people who have been wanting to start filling out their list of “best movies of 2012”.

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