Good Scott

I mentioned earlier in the week that seeing Ridley Scott's Prometheus was high on my "to-do list," and so I headed out opening night to catch it. (Just Friday night, not one of the midnight screenings. I think midnight openings for are now on my "Murtagh List." ("I'm getting too old for this shit."))

Prometheus might just be the prettiest movie I have ever seen. The visuals are simply breathtaking, from the top-notch CG landscapes and vehicles and creatures, to the elaborate and detailed sets, to the sweeping vistas contributed by Mother Nature for on-location shooting. I think it's no coincidence that early on in Prometheus, the movie makes mention of Lawrence of Arabia; that's another film that was famous for its majestic visuals, and this movie seemed to consciously be applying to that elite club. And, if you ask me, assuming the throne. I'm just short on words to describe how jaw-droppingly gorgeous this film is.

That said, I've said many times before here that grand scenery is not the primary thing I look for in a movie; story and character are far more important to me. And in this area, Prometheus is pretty good overall... but not without flaws.

The main problem with the characters is that there are simply too many of them. The ship Prometheus has a crew of 17, we're told. Only 5 or 6 are given much screen time, and the rest just recede into a haze. In a conversation with my friends after the film, there was actual confusion over which-was-which in a key moment involving two secondary characters. I think it would have been better to ditch the dead weight and devote even more time to Michael Fessbender's creepily passive David, or Charlize Theron's brooding and hard-nosed Vickers. We could have seen more moments to explain why Noomi Rapace's quiet scientist Shaw had such toughness in her; or seen why Logan Marshall-Green's Holloway was so reckless despite being so educated; or seen another side to Idris Elba's Janek that helps explain his actions late in the film.

The plot is intriguing, and many of the suspenseful sequences do fill you with the same sense of creeping dread that Ridley Scott created so well in Alien. But there are also at least two moments where the jeopardy feels blatantly manufactured, scenes in which characters behave in ways that seem completely illogical just to lead to the narrative necessity of putting the crew at risk. Assuming you can put those questions aside, though, the action is exciting and the suspense is tense.

Prometheus is not the triumph that was Alien, but it is a very good movie. I grade it a B. And also, I think I might actually recommend seeing this one in 3D if you go. I usually skip 3D these days, and did on this occasion too. But one of my friends has seen it in both formats and recommended the 3D. Imagining how those sweeping visuals would have looked -- shot natively in 3D, as I understand it -- I have to concur that this one would be worth it.