Prometheus... for un-subtle or for worse
Monday, June 11th, 2012 07:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoI'm not sure exactly where to start with this movie. On one hand: it was worth seeing on the big screen. On the other: What the hell was that?!
So this movie wasn't awful, in the "why did we spend money on that?!" type of way that I was worrying about, and it was generally thought-provoking, although the thoughts it provoked were of the "how could smart people be so dumb?!" variety.
I think my biggest problem with this whole thing is a larger one that I have with the way that Hollywood writers think scientists speak/act. For example: the two scientists who are at the center of this story get all sulky (and in one case, drinks himself into ignoring sinister elements of the plot) when they don't find the exact answers they were expecting. This is ridiculous: the scientists whom I know, of all disciplines and levels of experience, get so excited when they find any type of data that supports their suppositions. And in this movie, there was DATA APLENTY--we're talking the motherload of all careers' amount of data. Sure, it wasn't the exact moment of satisfaction either of them were waiting for, but come on. They were looking at years' worth of material that would produce funding and scholarship--what scientist in her/his right mind would whine about not proving their exact hypothesis? Equally annoying, plot-wise, is the way that the writers thought some scientists would be so stupid that when approached by a Creepy Phallic Wormy Snakey Thing on an alien planet, the biologist coos and tries to soothe it. OMGWTFBBQ times ensue. Seriously, writers? That's what you think a scientist specializing in the study of animals would do on an alien planet with eerie scenery and evidence of death all around?
There was also the running theme of body horror throughout. Now, obviously, I didn't go into this movie thinking that the aliens would cuddle people to death--this is an R-rated movie, after all. (Side note: there was the obligatory too-young child three rows ahead of us. Man, did I feel sorry for that kid. He was maybe six years old.) And these aliens... well, you have to complement Giger and all the creature designers: we have both phallic and yannic scariness at all times! Tentacles! Vagina dentata! But... forced pregnancy?! This is one of my least favorite horror movie motifs, and this portion of the plot was executed in such a way that I kind of wanted to find the writer who thought this would be a good idea and punch him. Unfortunately, there were two moments of unintentional hilarity in this sequence: 1) the medical pod that Elizabeth uses to get the thing out of her initially refuses to perform the operation because it's only been calibrated for men's bodies. There is a sad joke that I want to make here, but mostly I was like, what the fuck?!? How does that even make sense on a ship that houses both male and female crew members? And, (I should say this joke is in really poor taste, but I couldn't help myself) 2) the device that eventually pulls the alien fetus out of her looked like a UFO catcher in an arcade. Which is so NOT the image that I needed during that part.
Surprisingly, there were some pretty good parts of this movie. The design of the Prometheus itself was really quite beautiful and interesting. And the cinematography of the alien landscapes can only be described as gorgeous. The reason we saw this on the big screen was to appreciate the visual parts of the movie, and we were not disappointed in that respect. Likewise, Idris Elba was made of awesome and win. I'd read some reviews that complained about the orchestral score, but I didn't think it was too over the top; if anything, the whole movie is too over the top, and the score reflects that, but it's fine on its own.
Most frustrating, though, was the lack of answers to the complicated plot questions. I'm all for ambiguity in stories (and I'm a sucker for the ending of the film, which features one of my favorite storytelling motifs) but too much ambiguity is unsatisfying in the extreme. In this case, I think that the parts that the writers thought were Profound and Mysterious simply gave rise to more questions than they could answer in the course of the story. It's one thing for a sci-fi movie to raise complicated questions (What is the nature of the soul? If you could ask a God a question, what would it be?, etc. etc.) but it's another for almost none of them to be answered at all. I hate movies that treat the audience like fools, and in this case, it was as if the movie said, "well, you're smart enough to ask these questions, but you're too stupid to know the answers just now."
In sum: Uhm... I can't summarize this into "yay" or "meh". Those with body horror triggers/squicks may want to avert their eyes at least three times. Those with birth horror triggers should probably steer clear of the whole thing. I'm not sorry we saw it, but it's nowhere near the awesome that the first Alien movie was. The design aspects of the ship itself, though, were beautiful, and the spectacle of the whole movie is undeniably amazing. It's uneven at best.
So this movie wasn't awful, in the "why did we spend money on that?!" type of way that I was worrying about, and it was generally thought-provoking, although the thoughts it provoked were of the "how could smart people be so dumb?!" variety.
I think my biggest problem with this whole thing is a larger one that I have with the way that Hollywood writers think scientists speak/act. For example: the two scientists who are at the center of this story get all sulky (and in one case, drinks himself into ignoring sinister elements of the plot) when they don't find the exact answers they were expecting. This is ridiculous: the scientists whom I know, of all disciplines and levels of experience, get so excited when they find any type of data that supports their suppositions. And in this movie, there was DATA APLENTY--we're talking the motherload of all careers' amount of data. Sure, it wasn't the exact moment of satisfaction either of them were waiting for, but come on. They were looking at years' worth of material that would produce funding and scholarship--what scientist in her/his right mind would whine about not proving their exact hypothesis? Equally annoying, plot-wise, is the way that the writers thought some scientists would be so stupid that when approached by a Creepy Phallic Wormy Snakey Thing on an alien planet, the biologist coos and tries to soothe it. OMGWTFBBQ times ensue. Seriously, writers? That's what you think a scientist specializing in the study of animals would do on an alien planet with eerie scenery and evidence of death all around?
There was also the running theme of body horror throughout. Now, obviously, I didn't go into this movie thinking that the aliens would cuddle people to death--this is an R-rated movie, after all. (Side note: there was the obligatory too-young child three rows ahead of us. Man, did I feel sorry for that kid. He was maybe six years old.) And these aliens... well, you have to complement Giger and all the creature designers: we have both phallic and yannic scariness at all times! Tentacles! Vagina dentata! But... forced pregnancy?! This is one of my least favorite horror movie motifs, and this portion of the plot was executed in such a way that I kind of wanted to find the writer who thought this would be a good idea and punch him. Unfortunately, there were two moments of unintentional hilarity in this sequence: 1) the medical pod that Elizabeth uses to get the thing out of her initially refuses to perform the operation because it's only been calibrated for men's bodies. There is a sad joke that I want to make here, but mostly I was like, what the fuck?!? How does that even make sense on a ship that houses both male and female crew members? And, (I should say this joke is in really poor taste, but I couldn't help myself) 2) the device that eventually pulls the alien fetus out of her looked like a UFO catcher in an arcade. Which is so NOT the image that I needed during that part.
Surprisingly, there were some pretty good parts of this movie. The design of the Prometheus itself was really quite beautiful and interesting. And the cinematography of the alien landscapes can only be described as gorgeous. The reason we saw this on the big screen was to appreciate the visual parts of the movie, and we were not disappointed in that respect. Likewise, Idris Elba was made of awesome and win. I'd read some reviews that complained about the orchestral score, but I didn't think it was too over the top; if anything, the whole movie is too over the top, and the score reflects that, but it's fine on its own.
Most frustrating, though, was the lack of answers to the complicated plot questions. I'm all for ambiguity in stories (and I'm a sucker for the ending of the film, which features one of my favorite storytelling motifs) but too much ambiguity is unsatisfying in the extreme. In this case, I think that the parts that the writers thought were Profound and Mysterious simply gave rise to more questions than they could answer in the course of the story. It's one thing for a sci-fi movie to raise complicated questions (What is the nature of the soul? If you could ask a God a question, what would it be?, etc. etc.) but it's another for almost none of them to be answered at all. I hate movies that treat the audience like fools, and in this case, it was as if the movie said, "well, you're smart enough to ask these questions, but you're too stupid to know the answers just now."
In sum: Uhm... I can't summarize this into "yay" or "meh". Those with body horror triggers/squicks may want to avert their eyes at least three times. Those with birth horror triggers should probably steer clear of the whole thing. I'm not sorry we saw it, but it's nowhere near the awesome that the first Alien movie was. The design aspects of the ship itself, though, were beautiful, and the spectacle of the whole movie is undeniably amazing. It's uneven at best.
