Prometheus

Still no word on when the commenting issues will be resolved. Hopefully soon. But I did want to poke my head up long enough to warn you away from seeing Ridley Scott's Alien prequel, Prometheus. Really, really bad. This one's going to be on a lot of ten worst lists at the end of the year.

When I see movies in the theater, I usually stick to action, horror or sci-fi. Which is to say that I see a lot of bad movies. But even so it is pretty rare that I completely hate a movie. No matter how asinine the story or hackneyed the dialogue, I can usually find something to like. Perhaps there's a clever action sequence or a few good lines. Or maybe just the thrill of seeing a big explosion. I like big explosions (in movies, that is).

Not this time. This is one of those movies where ten minutes in you get the sinking feeling that things aren't going to get any better. By twenty minutes you're waiting for it to end. And by thirty minutes you're thinking about things like sunk costs and about whether it might be worth it just to walk out.

So why was it so awful? The story. It's incomprehensible. If you've seen the ads you know the basic idea. Based on some highly dubious inferences drawn from a handful of ancient cave paintings, a pair of scientists decide that humanity was created by an alien race. They persuade an eccentric trillionaire (!!) to fund an expedition to the alien's home planet. Mayhem ensues! I'd say more, but I've grown bored just replaying the story in my head.

Mostly disappointing trailers too. Seriously, they remade Total Recall. Not a good day at the movies.

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Agree, it was a curious mix of a few good characters and ideas and lots of very bad ones, with a general sense that development of this movie started will but somewhere along the way they just stopped trying.

The science is terrible, I was embarrassed for them when I saw the parts about the alien DNA and "Darwinism", and the scientists worse. Even the plotline about religion stank, though it was clearly intended to make some sort of a big statement it just never seemed to get around to it in the end.

Rats. I was really looking forward to it. The NY Times gave it a so-so review; I think the reviewer said the visuals and 3D were stunning. Oh well, I'll check it on DVD.

(Will this work?)

But other than all that, how did you like the play film, Mr. Rosenhouse?

I did like the star map scene. Shiny!

And the android was well acted.

Um. I have nothing else positive to say about the film.

By Owlmirror (not verified) on 12 Jun 2012 #permalink

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