B+

The highly anticipated Ridley Scott film Prometheus is in theaters now. I finally had the chance to check it out. I can’t help but ask the other critics, why so much beef? Surely their expectations must have been way to high.

Before heading out to see the film, I did a refresher by watching the first Alien. I figured the movie would be largely based around an exploratory mission. It’s an extension of the story, and I wasn’t exactly expecting too much action.

So the basic overview of the film goes like this. We discover a bunch of cave paintings and take that as an invitation to go and meet these other beings. An expedition funded by the Hyland corporation heads out to the planet where we believe they reside. We find what they came for, but things take a bit of a turn.

Director Ridley Scott takes us pre Alien to tell the story of how the Aliens even came to be, and does a great job of it. He uses large sets to create a practical sci fi world and I love that about him. I’m so sick of so much green screen and CGI work. Sure there’s some CGI in the film. But back when Alien came out, everything was done with camera tricks, models, puppets, and suits. I know it takes a little longer to build those massive sets, but it really pays off.

Our main cast worked pretty well together. The incredibly talented Michael Fassbender stole the show again. He played his part to a T, and even though at times his character was predictable, he still stood out.  I wasn’t really familiar with Naomi Rapace or Logan Marshall-Green, but the two had great on screen presence and chemistry. Idris Elba also made the most of his short screen time.

There was one performance I thought was rather mediocre. Charlize Theron really phoned it in on this performance. Which was quite a let down, especially when you know what she is capable of. Maybe the best of her performance is on the cutting room floor, maybe she gave all she had to try to save Snow White and had nothing left. Either way, who cares, she should have brought her A game. Instead were left with a cold lifeless performance. Odd since she wasn’t a robot.

That being said, I don’t understand all the harsh criticisms towards the movie. It was everything I was expecting it to be, then again my expectations weren’t sky high.  I wasn’t expecting a pack of aliens from the start, followed by explosions, and a huge action sequence with bullet time. I found the story to be pretty solid, of course there’s plenty to think about after you watch the film. But that’s kind of the fun in it. Everyone had an opinion about Inception, I think Prometheus will be the same sort of thing. There’s plenty of room for a follow up film, and I hear there’s a possibility of that actually happening. I say to go see it and judge for yourself. I was entertained with it.