Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012) Review

Confusing films seem to be a common trend in the film industry. Inception and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are good examples of recent films that are considered confusing and require you to think while and after watching the film. Prometheus is different for one reason: I still can't get my head round it! Don't get me wrong, the narrative is easy to understand, it's just certain things that aren't explained. Don't give me the whole "You haven't watched Alien argument". From what I can tell there are only a few connections (which are spoilers so I'll leave those out).

After discovering cave paintings that lead to a constellation in deep space, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) sets off with a team of specialists to find where these paintings lead to. The team includes Shaw's partner Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), Captain Janek (Idris Elba), Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and the android David (Michael Fassbender). They discover a planet way away from Earth which they theorise will hold secret to human life and existence.

I previously mentioned this is a confusing film. That is because of the lack of explanations of events that take place in the film. I enjoy films that make you think, in fact I think they are generally better films because of it but here, they are asking a lot from us to work out everything. Most films drop clues. Unless they were well hidden, I didn't spot any which led to a lot of confusion.

It's very VERY clear that this is a Ridley Scott film and part of the Alien franchise. Gross-out violence is featured throughout this film. I generally can take high amounts of gore and, while there isn't a lot of gore in comparison to a film such as Saw, even I felt a bit freaked out at times. Prometheus really gives some chilling and gross moments. Even chillingly gross moments! This is a very violent film with violent scenes that almost comes out of nowhere but in this case, it's not a bad thing...at all.

There is some surprisingly good acting in this film. Noomi Rapace (who's first language isn't English but is still very convincing and has come along way since Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) does an excellent job as the protagonist and you actually feel what she feels, especially towards the end. Michael Fassbender seemed very flat at first. Sure, he was a robot, but it just seemed off. Later on however, you get adjusted to it and realise that he's actually doing a very good job. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he's nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars (Trust me, Prometheus will be nominated for something...I just don't know what!).

Prometheus may have been confusing and filled with too many enigma codes, it's almost covered by some excellent acting, a decent narrative and some top notch action. Sure, it may not have lived up the the epic hype that it had (I honestly expected it to be this years Avatar) but it kind of fall flat by being insanely dull.

Verdict:
6.5/10
Well crafted characters and action sequences but this can't save the lack of explanations or just anything that's meaningful...DO BETTER NEXT TIME, RIDLEY!