Prometheus (2012)

I recently re-watched "Prometheus" and it's been a while since I first saw it. I first saw it in the cinema when it came out in 2012 and I remember not being particularly fond of it, but I've heard a few critics since then say that it is the type of film that you will appreciate more if you watch it the second time around, so I decided to give "Prometheus" a second chance. Unfortunately I'm not able to say that I enjoyed "Prometheus" a whole lot more than the first time I watched it, but there are a few things in it that I appreciated more about it upon my second viewing. "Prometheus" tells the story of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw who boards the Prometheus space ship to go to the planet LV-223 in search for aliens named "The Engineers" which she believes are the creators of mankind. This film is also supposedly a prequel to, or a spin-off of, or....uh....something that connects it to Ridley Scott's original "Alien" film. The "Alien" connections are something that I couldn't get a grasp on in this film, because it's rather unclear as to whether or not "Prometheus" is a prequel to "Alien" or if it's even in the same universe as it. I think that Ridley Scott said that "Prometheus" is its own story with a few aspects of "Alien" in it. I was trying to watch "Prometheus" as its own film but I was constantly distracted by references to "Alien", which makes me wonder why the filmmakers even bothered putting references to "Alien in "Prometheus" if they wanted it to be its own story. The main problem that I had with this film was its script written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, because so much of it didn't make a whole lot of sense. I kept asking myself why things were happening in the movie and why characters were doing certain things, and at the end of the film I was left with a lot of unanswered questions and I was rather unsatisfied. It's not that I have a problem with films that leave you with questions though. One of my favourite films ever is "Donnie Darko" which leaves the audience with a lot of questions after it ends. The difference between "Donnie Darko" and "Prometheus" is that in "Donnie Darko" I felt like everything in the film was happening for a reason so I wanted to watch it again to gain a better understanding of its story, but in "Prometheus" there were so many strange scenes that felt like they were irrelevant to the film's story as a whole. Along with that "Donnie Darko" had a variety of different characters in it that I found interesting and cared about, but Prometheus' characters were rather one-dimensional and often made decisions that were unfathomably stupid. I didn't find them very interesting nor did I care much about what happened to them. I sort of admired that "Prometheus" was trying to tell a story that was different from your average sci-fi adventure film and it left a bit more to interpretation, but I think that it could've been handled a lot better. This film's story felt very muddled up. There were various scenes that just kind of came and went and didn't have a big impact on the film's story. I don't have a problem with the screenwriters trying to tell a more complex story, but I think that if that's what they wanted to do then things have to happen in the film for a reason and not just feel like they have little consequence within the film's story. If "Prometheus" is worth watching for anything it's definitely for its visuals as they are most certainly its biggest positive. It's rather interesting to see Ridley Scott return to directing sci-fi film after such a long absence from the genre. He is often praised as a very atmospheric director and that is most certainly true with this film. "Prometheus" has some pretty astounding visuals which kept me intrigued by the film despite it's rather poor plot. I saw Ridley Scott's "Alien" when I was way too young to see it and it scared the living day lights out of me. I'm still yet to be scared more by a film than the first time I saw "Alien", so one of the things pleased me about "Prometheus" was that there was one rather grotesquely creepy sequence, which was probably my favourite scene in the whole film. I think that grotesque horror isn't always just there to gross you out. It can often be used to create really unsettling, disturbing or creepy scenes. I would say that "Alien" and John Carpenter's "The Thing" are two of the best examples of effectively creepy use of grotesque horror. I found the acting in this film to be okay. I think that it was probably hard for any of the actors or actresses in this film to give a performance that really stood out, because none of this film's characters are written in a particularly compelling way. The only performance that really stood out to me was Michael Fassbender's really understated and brilliant performance as David. I think that Michael Fassbender is really proving himself to be a really talented actor, both in mainstream and independent cinema. I think that David was the most interesting character and it reminded me a bit of some of the themes brought up in Ridley Scott's earlier sci-fi film "Blade Runner". The special effects in this film were phenomenal. It was very refreshing to see some actual practical effects being used in a more recent sci-fi film. Animatronics and puppetry almost always look more real to me than something created with CGI. A lot of the weird creatures in this film look sickeningly slimy and gross which is just the way I like it. It's good to see practical and digital special effects being used side by side as I think that that's the best way to use special effects in films. This film's special effects and production design also play a key part in establishing its world. To conclude I don't think that "Prometheus" is much better the second time around. It deserves some credit for its ambitions as a science-fiction film along with its spectacular visuals and a terrific performance from Michael Fassbender, but I think that its poorly constructed story and its one-dimensional uninteresting characters outweigh the film's positives for these reasons I would give "Prometheus" a star rating of 2 out of 5 stars. I see "Prometheus" as an admirable but extremely flawed failure of a film. Despite the problems with this film's story I would recommend that you watch it at least once for its awesome visuals.