Prometheus Review
Sometimes having high expectations for movie can be a rewarding experience, I was expecting great things from Joss Whedon’s The Avengers and when it delivered everything I had hoped for I felt validated and rewarded. At the same time having high expectations can make a movies flaws and shortcomings even worse, just look at 2009’s Terminator: Salvation where the trailers and the marketing campaign got my extremely excited only to have the film itself let me down. My expectations for Ridley Scott’s new film Prometheus were extremely high, so the big question is did the meet those expectations? Unfortunately I have to say that for me Prometheus was a bit of a disappointment.
I am a big fan of Ridley Scott’s movies, the original Alien is such a great movie and I consider it both one of my favorite science fiction movies as well as one of my favorite horror films. So when I heard that he was planning to make a movie set in the same universe as that classic film I got very excited. Then as the films cast was announced (Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce) my excitement only grew more. And finally came the trailers, posters, and other marketing elements and suddenly I was expecting this to be one of the summer’s best movies.
Prometheus is not a bad movie; unfortunately it is not a very good movie either. After seeing the movie I was asked by several friends what I thought of it, and each time I honestly sat silently for a moment before responding that it was OK. For me there was just something off about the movie, even a week later I am struggling to put my finger on what it was exactly about the movie that did not work for me. Prometheus starts off on kind of weird note, and then it bounces around a bit before finally getting the movie going.
Thankfully Ridley Scott has already announced that there is about 20 minutes of the movie that he cut out during the editing of the movie, which he is planning to put back into the movie for its eventual DVD and Blu-ray release. This is not a new thing for Mr. Scott’s movies on home video, Alien, Gladiator, Robin Hood, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, Kingdom of Heaven (adding in a whooping 45 minutes of material that makes a huge difference in the quality of the movie), and Blade Runner (which has 3 different cuts; theatrical, director’s cut, and the final cut) have all benefited from having a director’s cut being released to help flesh out their stories and characters. With this in mind there is a part of me that I hoping that this reported 20 minutes of cut footage will help address some of my issues with the movie.
Sometimes a 2nd viewing of a movie can help me to enjoy it more, as my expectations have been lowered and I can suddenly appreciate the movie for what it is rather than focusing on what I wanted from the movie. That was the case with Terminator: Salvation, and even Ridley Scott’s 2010 film Robin Hood. I can’t say that this will be the case for Prometheus as I have only seen it once and I most likely won’t see it again until it comes to home video.
If you are dying to see Prometheus the chances are that you have already gone. If you have been on the fence and have been waiting, I would recommend just waiting a bit longer and seeing it at a cheap theater or waiting to rent it. I am giving Prometheus 3 popcorn buckets out of 5.
