Prometheus

Ridley Scott – 2012 – England 
  

Prometheus may not end up on my top ten list of all-time favorite movies, but when it was over it really hit home to me how out-of-step I am with general tastes.  I thought it was fascinating, dramatic and exciting all the way through, yet the main reason I waited so long to see it was because of all the ballyhoo about what a ponderous disappointment it was.  I was expecting a final act that was much more like that of 2001 or Apocalypse Now; not a climax as much as a trailing off into nebulous symbolism, (and I would’ve been fine with that, by the way), but overall the film was remarkably tight and fast-paced; not an action film, but a film that moves succinctly from one sequence to the next.  Frankly, if anything I might’ve appreciated a bit more stately and esoteric approach, at least in some areas.  The other popular gripe is that so much goes unexplained.  I loved that about the film.  Much better to preserve a little mystery, something that invites further viewings, than to declare an unqualified solution that’s dumbed down as much as possible.  After discovering an ancient cave painting in Scotland that seems to point to a faraway solar system, a team of scientists embark on a quest to find humanity’s origins.  Yes, the idea that we may have been planted here by aliens instead of God has become a pretty routine sci-fi chestnut by now, and I do agree that Ridley Scott and company might have come up with something a bit more original, but still the treatment of the theme is the most intelligent here than in the various other movies and TV shows I’ve seen it in.  All in all, I say it’s a good film, one that I look forward to seeing again.