Review: Prometheus (2012) has stunning visuals, but with a generic story, old ideas, and thin characters.

Prometheus

2012
124 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

Come what may, Prometheus is a mid-level version of what it is.  By that, I mean it is, in the end, a somewhat generic Alien/The Thing-type horror film.  It is mostly science-fiction only in that it takes place in the future and involves inter-stellar travel.  Its 'big ideas' can be summed up in two sentences, and they are not only not-revolutionary but recognizable to probably 90% of the viewing audience.  It has some truly wonderful visuals and it's arguably worth seeing once purely for some of the images it creates.  But as a full-blown movie it doesn't quite work. Like Super 8, it gets tied up with horror elements in its last half that its filmmakers don't truly care about and feel like a commercial concession.  Like last summer's botched 80s-Spielberg homage, Prometheus takes advantage of a genre audience so worn down by threatened reboots and remakes that it seems almost groundbreaking that this film is merely a glorified rip-off of earlier genre entries of this nature.  While advertised as an original science-fiction epic with tangential ties to the existing Alien franchise, it really is a bigger budgeted and better cast variation of that specific template.  Despite must-see production values and some genuinely compelling imagery, it's somewhat closer in quality to The Thing 2011 than The Thing 1982.

Alien prequel/spin-off Prometheus gets two very Alien-like trailers.

This looks entertaining, it's well-cast, and yes there are moments that suggest a pretty large scale, but at the end of the day, it still looks like an Alien-type horror film.  Which means it will seemingly follow a certain template and hit specific plot beats along the way.  That's okay, but I have to wonder if this film weren't actually directed by Ridley Scott if all the hyperventilating geeks wouldn't be screaming 'Dude, it's an Alien rip-off!'.  Anyway, feel free to disagree, but I'm certainly hoping it will be a winner come June 8th.  Moreover, the first teaser played much better on a big screen (which partially inspired by rant about that last two weeks ago), so I'll presume the same is true about this IMAX-specific teaser.  This one drops in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D.  As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson

Ridley Scott's 'not an Alien prequel' Prometheus gets a trailer that looks an awful lot like an Alien prequel, or an Alien rip-off.

If I seem a little less excited about this project than others, it's because A) I'm not an Alien junkie (I love Aliens, like Alien and Alien: Ressurection, and respect the comprised vision that is Fincher's extended cut of Alien 3) and B) Ridley Scott is just as likely to make Robin Hood or Hannibal as he is to Kingdom Of Heaven or Blade Runner.  Actually, as I scroll down the list of Scott's movies over the last 20 years, I actually find far more I didn't like (1492, American Gangster, GI Jane, Black Hawk Down, etc) than ones I did enjoy (Gladiator which I still think is vastly overrated, Matchstick Men which is underrated, Thelma and Louise, etc).  Aside from that, the project feels a whiff desperate, as if Scott just decided to return to the franchise that made him a name after a few costly flops.  Now having said all of that, the footage on display does look quite impressive. The scale is pretty large and the cast is aces, but I could have said the same thing about Body of Lies.  And the preview is certainly selling the movie like either an unofficial Alien prequel or a big-budget variation on the template that Alien established (think Event Horizon or Virus).  But for now, there is no reason not to give everyone involved the benefit of the doubt.  This one drops on June 8th, 2012.  As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

Weekend Box Office (12/04/11): With no new wide-releases, Twilight tops, Muppets drop, and smaller films (Shame, Descendants, Artist) take center stage.

As is sometimes the case with the post-Thanksgiving weekend, studios did not offer up a single new wide release.  While that's understandable considering the customary huge drops that the holdovers take this weekend, it's frustrating this year considering the sheer amount of product being released over the last ten days of the year (does Summit really expect The Darkest Hour to strike huge over Christmas weekend?).  Anyway, to the surprise of some (including me), a larger-than-expected drop for The Muppets allowed Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part I to top the box office for the third weekend in a row.  The fourth film in the saga grossed $16.9 million, for a drop of 60% and a cume of $247 million.  While it's still trailing the respective end-of-third weekend totals of New Moon ($267 million) and Eclipse ($255 million), it had the largest third weekend of the franchise and a slightly smaller drop than New Moon (which tumbled 64% in weekend three for a $15 million weekend).  So while it still may end up trailing the last two pictures, it has a fighting chance to end up awfully close to the $295-300 million range of the prior sequels.  It's also just ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I, which had $244 million at this point and eventually crawled to $295 million.

07/16/99 - When the studios blew the best chance to legitimize the NC-17.

As seems to happen every year, bloggers, critics, and pundits are up-in-arms over an Oscar-bait film being awarded or threatened with an NC-17.  As usual, the film in question is a critically-acclaimed adult film with strong sexual content.  And once again, the many people arguing about this are missing the real problem.  Yes, it's annoying that ultra-violent horror films like Saw VII get R ratings while adult films with somewhat explicit sexual content get NC-17 ratings.  And yes it's annoying when somewhat more sensationalistic sexual content like that found in Black Swan gets an R while the apparently mature and allegedly thoughtful sexual content in Steve McQueen's Shame gets tagged with an NC-17.  But the problem is not with the rating, but with the enforcement of said rating.  Put simply, if major theater chains were willing to carry NC-17 pictures and mainstream media outlets would carry advertising for NC-17 pictures, then the debate over what film got what rating would be moot.  As it is, the problem with the NC-17 is not its seemingly arbitrary application (IE - far more likely for sex than for violence), but how it is viewed by the industry and the general moviegoers.