Movie Review: Prometheus UPDATE 6-11

Short review:  It sucked.


One star, for the robotic c-section. Nice.


Longer review:

Sigmund's point is well-taken that if the Engineers had "impregnated" the earth with DNA 4 billion years ago then they would have evolved further away from their current phenotype as seen in the movie. Alternatively, if the impregnation happened within the last million years, as evidenced by the vegetative life on earth during the opening scene, then the writer is re-writing evolutionary history.

Okay, I'll forgive all that. The greater point is that the movie sucked in nearly every other way as well. The special effects were prodigious-- the robot c-section was outstanding-- but the plot was tiresome. Unlike other sci-fi films it does not open any new and interesting thought processes. The old Star Trek series' were much more thought-provoking in addressing our existential threats, our collective hopes, our eternal angst, our complex social interactions, etc. 

In Prometheus every character was fatally flawed either by lack of development or unrealistic and unbelievable actions.  Scientists were undisciplined, incompetent and superstitious, which is pretty much a mortal sin for any science fiction movie. If we can't see the scientists as worthwhile then why watch? How could such morons even get to this distant planet in the first place? 

As Deus Ex Malcontent (DXM) notes:

Okay, a trillion-dollar expedition into space with the aim of discovering the origin of man, the most important mission mankind has ever undertaken, and the 17 people hand-picked for it are the dumbest and most unlikable people planet Earth has to offer. Scientists don't behave like scientists. The captain of the ship seems strangely disinterested in his crew's peril. Characters do unbelievably stupid things seemingly without reason and thoroughly against what we know of their personalities through the meager amount of set-up we're given. 

Then I realized the day after seeing the movie that the writer is the same as for TV's Lost. I would not have wasted 2 hours watching this trash if I had known. The plot was the same disjointed, gratuitous and lame garbage. A mess. 

As DXM says: "In reference to all of these questions, I blame and kind of hate [Lost writer] Damon Lindelof. Despite its popularity, Lost was annoying metaphysical tripe that masqueraded as intellectualism -- and Lindelof seems to have brought the same ethos to Prometheus." 

Or maybe Ridley Scott is getting demented to have bought into this crappy script.

I agree with DXM up until the final paragraph of his review when he abstrusely says he is going to see the movie again (!)... just to see it in IMAX.

WTF?!

I saw it in 2D and I'm thankful I didn't pay the extra $3.50 for 3D. Why on earth would anybody want to waste even more hard-earned coin on this trash?

Aside from the c-section scene this thing is unwatchable.


(h/t @GoodDoc01 for the DXM reference)
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UPDATE: 6-11-2012


Cavalorn explores the religious symbolism in Prometheus, which may be correct or it may be over-reading the intent. Topics such as virgin births, creators, resurrection and self-sacrifice are hardly the sole property of Judeo-Christianity, and the project is named after a Greek mythic figure, so perhaps Ridley Scott is attempting some sort of neo-Neoplatonism.... This consideration actually just adds to my annoyance with the film.