In response to Ralph's previous review (to which I am completely accepting of - everyone is entitled to their own opinion etc) I would like to offer the following few comments.
For the people who know me well, they know the following things -
1) I am definitely not a person who thinks logically
2) I have little or no concentration most of the time
3) I will always choose a good story over special effects
4) many of my favourite films are ones I don't (or only realise a long time after) that I do not understand
5) I don't have much interest in Alien but I do love Blade Runner - I will challenge anyone to a duel over their knowledge of this film.
6) and of course this one - I am a HUGE Lost fan...don't care how many questions went unanswered, for me this was just how the show was, I didn't need answers and I loved the ending...what were people actually expecting? I would like to know some alternative suggestions.
So onto Prometheus...
1) I wasn't really paying attention to the plot as I was too blown away by the visuals....lighting, sound, cinematography, you know..the usual stuff I'm into!
2) I went into the cinema with absolutely no expectations whatsoever, hadn't read a thing about it and thought I would be completely bored seeing as Alien doesn't interest me much anyway...how many god damn times must I hear the endless possible meanings as to why Ripley strips down to her underwear at the end? Because she wanted to, that's probably why. Basically I had/have no idea what all these connections between the films are.
3) I totally believed the entire time David was a good guy...was he? Whatever, the scene where he poured the vodka was great and I was relieved he survived. It forced me to revisit that old classic Shame afterwards which I now like a lot more.
4) I thought the self abortion type scene was great and this was when I really started paying attention. I hadn't made the connection with David infecting the other guy or whatever, I was really just taking this in scene by scene and trying to pay as much attention to the story as I could while inwardly gushing about the film's beauty.
5) I find those who base their enjoyment of things on logic to be cold hearted creatures who should maybe lighten up a bit and just enjoy stuff cos it's entertaining and doesn't need to make sense to be so...
6) Director's get worse as they get older...for example George Lucas and Tim Burton. Scott's released some decent films in the last decade but none of them are particularly memorable. Gladiator was epic, Kingdom of Heaven wasn't, but supposedly the director's cut is a great improvement.
Scott is known for altering his films (without taking anything away from fans of the originals) so there may be many versions of this still to come...he has said there is much that could be added and altered.
Most importantly...I just loved it because I thought it was amazing. And no matter how many people try to tell me this is wrong, I will not give in!
4.2/5
"Don't listen to the hype"...as someone once said.
"Don't listen to the hype"...as someone once said.
I'd like to address points 1 and 5 that you've made.
ReplyDeleteDirectors relying on visuals, SFX instead of the plot is generally agreed to be one of the major downfalls of modern cinema. But Kudos for arguing in its favour as its a ballsy move.
Regarding logic. All characters and plot rely on the logic of events and the logic of character motivations otherwise people start thinking its unbelievable. In this film only David was consistently true to his character and very little of the film makes sense unless the engineers were at war with the predators and lost. But we wouldn't know that because our super intelligent race builders are really just Luchadores in space.
My point about the logic was though that I was not viewing this as if it was believable, just enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn response....:P
ReplyDelete1. Fair do's, but I always need coherency in the story-telling to be engaged, and as ERUZA mentioned, it's the pursuit of spectacle that has resulted in Hollywood predominantly churning out rubbish. The only ever exception I can think of regarding style overriding substance in a forgiveable fashion, would be Gaspar Noe's Enter The Void.
2. Then it's no coincidence that you've come out of it feeling a lot more favourable about it. Without question, the folk who went in with a fair degree of anticipation have, by & large, come out feeling extremely underwhelmed.
3. Not necessarily good or bad, just an android with an agenda that supersedes the crew's mortality. Maybe you think he's a good guy because you didn't care for any of the human characters? ;)
4. No? I thought the water droplet moment was quite clear.
5. Completely disagree. If characters start behaving in ways that don't make sense & defy the rules which they've already laid down, the sense of drama falls apart. It doesn't matter whether the events take place in the deepest darkest corner of space or my kitchen sink, a film lives or dies by its own suspension of disbelief.
6. In all honesty, out of all of the Ridley films I've seen (most, but not all), I'd only consider 2 of them being great - and they were from his first 3 (Blade Runner was awful in its 1st cut as well).
Still, glad you liked it...and we'll leave the many issues regarding Lost for another day. :P
It also annoys me that most of my friends who hate it also loved and still love Lost to the bitter end!
ReplyDeleteI was able to focus on the plot a lot more the second time round and see the problems with the pacing and did definitely see the drink being spiked this time!
I think people who like science fiction should be appreciative of any major film like this, as they don't come along very often.
Also the Blade Runner theatrical cut wasn't at all Scott's fault, he was made to give it a 'happy' ending. If you're at all interested the 4 hour doc on it Dangerous Days is really good and pretty much explains everything about the film and its cuts, by Scott, Ford and everyone else involved.
ReplyDeleteI do know he probably has more power over his films now than he did back then though lol
ReplyDeleteYeah you're right, Blade Runner was fudged thanks to a studio disagreement - always seems to happen that way.
ReplyDeleteAs for Prometheus, I'm appreciative of it in the sense that it was outlandish, bold & was trying to do something that films on that scale seldom do. I just felt the writing badly let it down. That said, I'll have that over a superhero film with no ambition any day. More to follow... :P