It actually flowed better on second viewing and feels like a good fun sci-fi romp.
That's the thing, see, it didn't for me - if it was jam-packed with mad scenes like the C-section and maybe the nasty worm encounter (I think Fifield's helmet melting and caving in onto his screaming face is a pretty strong image, and it definitely got me a bit excited for the film's visual impact when I saw that bit in the trailers before release), it could've been a rip-roaringly daft classic, sorta like a methed-up
Aliens or
Predator. But it intentionally didn't go down that route, it wants to be taken quite seriously.
You need to get the balance right; if it's quite a silly film you're making, go for it! Throw in some knowing lines, have a laugh with the format. If it's a weighty, forbidding, profound type of film, you need to cut down a bit on the dumb nonsense or it'll detract from the overall intended effect. Think of any film which gradually builds a very ominous, brooding atmosphere, then something totally stupid and cartoonish happens - it takes you completely out of it. Sometimes that's deliberate, sometimes it works to provide a tiny bit of light relief. Other times, it's completely misplaced and spoils a scene.
Awesome films like
Mulholland Drive,
Open Your Eyes, the original Norwegian
Insomnia, etc. don't explain things to the viewer like they're idiots, they require far more thought and imagination to piece together than a film like Prometheus does, and they create a potent underlying mood that carries the narrative through some very strange sequences indeed. That's not to say Prometheus is even trying to do the kind of things those films were - that'd be an extremely unfair and ridiculous criticism of it - but that comparison certainly pisses all over Andy's obvious-trolling assertion that Prometheus is far too complex, sophisticated and demanding of the viewer's abstractive faculties for crayon-crunching cretins like me and many others here to appreciate.
A film such as this, with so many possibilities given the wellspring of creepy-sexy-cool concepts that is
Alien, not to mention the money and talent made available, shouldn't really be defended to the hilt for being 'okay'. It is a kinda enjoyable B-movie... why not create a fantastically bonkers B-movie, then? Toss in all kinds of fascinating leftfield shit, make it as weird and unique as possble. As it stands, it really isn't heaving with original ideas beyond the comprehension of most cinemagoers. There are a couple of good scenes yeah, but so much in it seems rushed, halfarsed. We even have a poster on this thread who actually worked on the film, and he was very disappointed with the end product too. That's the bugbear for many - it's very much a wasted opportunity.
