Prometheus... finally!

[monkeyshines99]

For $2.75 apiece, my friend and I caught the last day/last showing of Prometheus at the bargain cinema... and I'm really glad we did!  Liked this one a lot; (even better than some of the straight Alien series), and it included some very nice homages and parallel  moments to the foregoing films, without being sappy OR precisely a prequel.  I liked that it seemed to be shot with more light than the others, and had less of that 'murky' quality -- though it was marred by some weird blurriness in sections of the screen here and there...possibly an artifact from having been converted from 3-D ?? or perhaps just a funky print..? but only noticed this briefly, 3 or 4 times - nothing too awful.  Mechanically, my only other quibble was with a bit of uneven sound -- so couldn't make out some of the characters' lines at some points... which was disappointing.  Even more disappointing was that they didn't actually use Max Von Sydow for the role of Weyland... as had originally been conceived -- the old-man makeup they used on the replacement actor, and his portrayal of a very elderly man, were both spotty and truly unconvincing, IMHO... but, that being said -- the rest was great stuff.  (Oh, OK, a few of the deaths were pretty campy -- but not enough to hurt.)

Overall, I thought it was a nice mix of archeology/philosophy/'human nature' study, some of those intensely uncomfortable, sustained moments we've come to expect; a few bits of gore and interesting transformation, and lots of questions -- some answered, more raised... some of THOSE hopefully to be answered in the planned sequel.  I did like Noomi Rapace (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as the 'Ripley replacement' here... and Michael Fassbender's portrayal of the new android, 'David' as well -- he played his character with a sort of childlike/adolescent "I wonder what would happen if...?" quality I thought really worked well, here -- not malicious, not 'just following orders', not conflicted -- but curious/experimental/a bit rebellious... and also a bit creepily fixated on a thing or two... very nice!  Prometheus was less 'Gigerish' in design than the former films -- but still ornate in decor -- and relied far less on forced claustrophobia for effect, as we're not strictly ship, mine, or prison-bound, and actually see a fair amount of scenic outside terrain in this offering.

A well-acted, worthy successor to the series -- (aside from the woefully bad old-man makeup and movement), certainly well-staged, great designs, and very interesting sets... which we actually get to SEE, here.  I found the use of musical instruments especially intriguing, as well...  Two thumbs up - I highly recommend it -- an A- or B+ effort -- and will definitely be wanting to see the sequel.