BTC-Prometheus Crossover Review with Jarvisrama99

“A recent version of this story would have hurtled toward the part where the alien jumps on the crew members. Today's slasher movies, in the sci-fi genre and elsewhere, are all pay-off and no buildup.”
Roger Ebert, Alien review, October 26, 2003.

Volts48: Released in 2012 under the direction of Ridley Scott on a budget of $130 million and distributed by 20th Century Fox; "Prometheus" was Ridley's Scott's return to the science-fiction genre after 30 years of period pieces, comedies, thrillers and war films. The hype for the movie was initially huge on it's release date, with many people initially predicting this movie to be the next "Avatar."

Jarvisrama99: It’s clear that people are aware of letdowns. We are aware of a story we enjoy and know is having another movie, with a different cast, but set in the same universe. Even better when the original creator helped conceive this world returns to help out. After all, this was what happened with the 1999 blockbuster, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, a prequel to events before the first Star Wars film, Episode IV: A New Hope, released in 1977. The newest film since the series ended in 1983 with Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, fans were thrilled and praising the event. 16 years of long waiting paid off, unaware of what disappointment, confusion, and frustration would awaken as the movie began, from it’s creator who helped start this achievement years before..

I wanted to start out simply saying, even though we’re aware that a movie might look or sound good, doesn’t mean it will promise you your expectations. This should be clearer, since audiences fell for this again in last year’s summer blockbuster, Prometheus, directed by Ridley Scott.

As many viewers are aware, Prometheus is a prequel to the events of the 1979 Science Fiction Horror movie Alien, which Scott also directed. The film dealt with a space crew on the space vessel Nostromo receiving an alien distress call on a planet entitled LV-426. The crew mounts a mission to seek the unearthly source, and in the process discover a giant, alien derelict ship, with it’s only crewmember, a giant humanoid-like creature referred to as the Space Jockey, lies fossilized with it’s chest burst from the inside out. They also discover a giant collection of alien eggs, which one hatches and releases a facehugger, which attacks a crew member. He returns to the ship and is unable to get the facehugger off, due to when trying to cut it off it bleeds acid. It falls off by itself later on, and the infected crewmember is seemingly fine. That is until a short time later a baby alien bursts out of the infected crewmember’s chest and flees deep into the ship. The other members begin to hunt it down, only to realize it’s grown to gigantic size, and slowly kills off one by one until one escapes, finally killing off the murderous alien.

The film was a huge success, drawing on a script which was based on a comedy, and launched Ripley Scott into stardom. Alien was a box office success, and went on to conceive three sequels, a tie in series with the Predator films, and many fantastic games, comics, and graphic novels. Yet the first movie always left questions: What happened to the Space Jockey? Where did it come from? Was the alien part of a greater master plan? Scott would ponder these questions long after working on the film in 1979, a series of questions that led him back into the Alien series in the form of Prometheus.

Volts48:
Plot: In the year 2089, archeologists (minus the hat, jacket, whip and charm) Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) make the discovery of a series of art from separated cultures that show a series of dots meant to indicate stars, they come to the conclusion that this is a message from these space aliens called "Engineers" to come meet with them (Yeah, Elizabeth is a devout Christian and yet her belief that these aliens want to talk to these humans sounds like something you'd hear from Scientology). They somehow manage to get funding from Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce in old man make-up, though I imagine hiring an older actor would cost less) to go into space and find this planet that may or may not be the actual home planet of these Engineers. On the Spaceship Prometheus, there exists quote a few people you won't really remember, apart from a black guy captain (Idris Elba) and some mercenaries you won't remember, there's this uninteresting Weyland employee played by Charlize Theron who doesn't really offer too much to the film outside of being bitchy and mad all the time and David (Michael Fassbender) an android who tries to comprehend his understanding of humans and his existence. Anyways, they find an alien head, David turns from a good robot to a bad robot and manages to prove that everyone on the ship is an idiot before it culminates in "what-the-f*ckery" for the last hour of the movie.

Jarvisrama99: The 2012 film is full of errors and problems, though it does have some good additions. First off, the film has a beautiful, sweeping feel to it, making it a genuine film that’s not trying to copy other films. Second, the film succeeds in not being just a remake to the first film. Sure, there are a few times it almost heads in that direction, but never goes as far as going straight into a downright big-budgeted remake. Third, the film is accompanied by the wonderful re-imagined designs in tribute to the great H.R. Giger, whose work set up the look and tone of the Alien series. While it’s not new, it’s definitely a fun trip down nostalgia lane. The film’s ultimate focus, which is on the discovery of where we came from, is still a unique concept that worked well in the film, though did indeed have stupid moments (which I’ll get to later). I’m also happy this isn’t just a one prequel film, more of a small part in a bigger story that will lead to important events.

Volts48: It should be noted that two writers wrote this movie, Jon Spaihts (writer of the abysmal "The Darkest Hour" which nobody saw) and Damon Lindelof (the same man who co-wrote "Cowboys & Aliens") and these guys gave us this? The movie tries it's damnedest to ask deep questions about religion and the creation of life, but it doesn't even bother to answer most of them or the answers they do give are unsatisfying in the slightest. There are also moments tin eh script that, in my mind, really don't add up or feel pointless, like, why did Weyland pretend to be dead? Was he a wanted criminal? Did all the mercenaries on board the ship have a grudge against the guy? There really is no reason narratively why he has to pretend he's dead. There's also no real reason for moments like that to happen and it shows the lack of attention Ridley must have had on this project to not question the screenplay.
Also, the ending was just thrown in to remind the audiences this was supposed to be a prequel to "Alien," it wouldn't bug me as much if they just had the courtesy to at least use a traditional puppet, but nope, just use a computer effect cause that's scarier than seeing something that looks like something you can touch.

Jarvisrama99: While the film had some good points, it did hit some slap-in-the-face moments I can’t ignore.
A. The opening with the reveal of human life was created by aliens( I think it works still as a powerful shot, though not a great way to open a movie, even when people later on are looking for the answer to who made them, despite the fact the audience is aware).
B. The geologist who wasted 4 years just to get money, despite he’s making a groundbreaking discovery on the discovery of alien life.
C. The reveal of the mission 2 years after put into cryosleep, which makes any plans for backing out now impossible.
d The dissing on David not having human emotions, even though it’s brought up he might.
E. The only evidence of alien life is a series of drawings in many different cultures. (Granted, it’s interesting, but also isn’t enough evidence to win a crowd over on possible alien life; This was also the setup in the opening of Alien Vs Predator, which was put out of the film cannon by this film)
F. The planet’s location, LV-223, not LV-426 (Not one that bothered me, but definitely bothered others).
G. Because there is breathable air, doesn’t mean you should take off your helmets and breath in the air, which might be filled with unknown outcomes.
H. The biologist and geologist chicken out by the discovery of a dead alien body in an alien structure.
I. The line “I love rocks” from the geologist.
J. Two people couldn’t make their way back to the ship because they got lost, even though one of them built a map of the area, which is on both of the two’s arms, and still have connection with the ship.
K. David spike’s a drink with the Black Goo (Not something I hate, mostly because the guy he spiked was a jackass the whole time).
I Do not go near a weiner snake with a vagina mouth just because it looks like a weiner.
M. Liz Shaw is infected with a tentacle monster after sleeping with Charlie Holloway that night.
N The pointless Space Zombie fight.
O. Peter Weyland faking his death so he could meet an Engineer, even he’s got a day or so left to live, though staying in cryogenic sleep will keep him alive.
P. Vickers considered the film’s villain, even though it wasn’t needed.
Q. Janek figuring out the whole plot of the Engineers and the Black Goo under false assumptions.
R. Liz running after having a C-Section.
S. Liz wanting to find out where the Engineers came from, despite the fact that they seem to be against the human race.
T. The Black Goo is able to make weiner snakes, space zombies, tentacle monsters, wipe out Engineers, slowly mutate a human body, and create the Xenomorphs. What doesn’t it do?

Volts48:
Characters:
I'm not going to bother to list off the actors involved in this snore-fest of writing because these actors, with the exception of Michael Fassbender. Fassbender has really proven himself to be a versatile actor these last few years, from "Inglourious Basterds" to "X-Men First Class" to his rather forgotten role in "Shame." Fassbender channels a mixture of HAL9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey" with Data from "Star Trek The Next Generation," making him sound synthetic and robotic, but making his demeanor and character very curious about human culture as he strives off boredom by playing basketball and watching "Lawrence of Arabia," fascinated by Peter O'Toole so much so that he imitates the voice and combs his hair in O'Toole's likeness. However, unlike Data who found acceptance for his curiosity and was given help to find his answers, everyone is a complete jerk to David, for no discernible reason, which I guess makes him bitter enough to infect one person in the off-chance they could impregnate someone and do something or another, yeah, even I don't get it, but after that, he stops being interesting and becomes another Ash from "Alien."
All the other characters in this film are not worthing mentioning because they annoy the hell out of me and offer nothing but proof that Ridley Scott chose the worst screenwriters to make a movie of this philosophical and narrative magnitude. I don't hold any qualms against the actors, they are trying, but the script has such paper-thin characters that I'm surprised Ridley didn't at least stop the movie half-way and say "wait a minute, these people are idiots!"

Production: Just like "Snow White and The Huntsman" or the Transformer movies, the production is pretty much the movie's only saving grace. I won't deny it's a fantastic and beautiful movie to look at. The interiors of the space-ship look really cool, the visual effects done for the planet look outstanding and even some of the make-up effects look pretty cool at times, that is when they're not making a young actor look unnecessarily old when they could have hired an older actor and it would have cost less all things considering. The music is, all right, it's large and sweeping, but it's nowhere close to Jerry Goldsmith's original score from 1979. Though I will say, the movie does have some form of atmosphere, while it's not as chilling as the original "Alien," it feels huge and expansive, making you feel small, which is a feeling I haven't felt in Sci-fi films this day in age since so many sci-fi films these days are set on earth. Still, Ridley Scott's vision for visuals keeps this film from blending in among all the other big-budget CGI sci-fi fest made this day in age.

Jarvisrama99: I am aware that the film has issues, which I’m not afraid to address, but the stuff that’s good is really good. It might be a letdown to some people sure, but I’m happy I saw it, though might not see it later on, that is unless I re watch Alien or a sequel to Prometheus is released.

Volts48:
Bottom Line: I watched a review by Mark Kermode lately where he described the movie being sorta like "The Phantom Menace" and I can see what he means by that. There was all this hype, all this buzz, so much advertising (you couldn't even turn on the TV or go online without seeing some advertisement for it. Once it eventually came to theaters, there seemed to be a split decision, there was one side of people that defended the movie and even went as far as to post videos online trying to explain it's philosophy, why the other half call it a pile of vomit and posted their videos explaining why it's BS. You could sorta putt me in the latter, but I remain on the edge of neutrality since, frankly, I don't think this movie deserves discussion, the answers it gives are not very satisfactory to the questions it clumsily asks. I don't mind sci-fi movies that ask deep questions about religion and the nature of mankind (just look at "Contact," another movie that people love and hate) but I could possibly care more if you can give me interesting characters that I can latch onto and that's what this movie fails in the most, the characters. Save for David, everyone feels shallow with poorly-written character motives forced into a movie that has a rather flat story that has enough holes to put in a sandwich. It's worth renting for curiosity's sake, if you can see the brilliance in this film and look past it's shallow screenwriting, then by all means, go watch it on Blu-Ray with the best HD TV you can find.

Jarvisrama99: Final Rating: 2/5. If you haven’t seen this, just stick to Alien and Aliens.
Volts48:
Final Rating: 1.5/5 At least it's not "Alien Vs. Predator."

Until next time, I'll keep the fires stoked for when we burn through celluloid again.