While we're in the niceities section, I also highly recommend The New World. Nobody does windblown trees, wordless face-caressing, and whispered voice-over like Malick, and The New World delivers in spades. Side note- I once saw a YouTube video of a guy who made a video that was basically making lunch as imagined by Michael Bay...someone definitely needs to do the same thing with Terry Malick. I haven't seen any Tarkovsky, either, but Solaris has been on my list ever since being talked up by Filmspotting. At the risk of turning this discussion into nothing but sci-fi name dropping, as I was reading your list and thinking about what I felt Prometheus was missing in terms of a slower burn suspense-wise, I think I should mention Moon. It came out a couple years ago and hardly anyone saw it, but it's another example of what I wrote about in my last email about a film taking care to slowly ramp up the tension through a minimalist approach that lets the audience figure things out for themselves, even if they make mistakes in the process.
Well, on to Prometheus, our discussion of which I feel is winding down, and I don't have a ton more to say- much to the joy of the 8 people who might read this all the way to the end. Even though I appreciate your attempt to dutifully rebut each of my examples, clearly it's just not getting anywhere, so I won't provide you any more cannon fodder. That being said (I'm sorry, I refuse to let this go), even though you claim that Vickers couldn't have gotten away from the ship by running to the side, I ask you this--how does Shaw, who is running WITH Vickers manage to escape this inescapable rolling donut of death? She doesn't even run to the side, no, she rolls three times to the side! No amount of cajoling will ever get me to believe that it is a good idea to kill a character in this way, unless that character is an animated cat.
All that aside, you ended your last email with a really interesting question, asking me if I we were coming at this movie the wrong way, and I think the answer is that we're coming at it exactly the right way, we just happen to disagree. For you, the ambition of the story and the existential themes it tries to address were enough to drown out some of the flaws in plot, characterization, etc. even to the point where you really didn't consider them to be flaws at all. For me, I can't look past some things in the movie that seem utterly ridiculous. Sometimes, that kind of thing works well in a movie, even a serious drama. One of my favorite movies is A Clockwork Orange. Clearly, that movie is packed with random, absurd scenes, dialogue, set-pieces. Why is it that I can appreciate the artistry in Kubrick's dystopian vision, but not Scott's? Is it any more absurd that Alex's gang has a fight with a rival gang where they are literally throwing each other 20 feet and making gravity-defying jump kicks than Vickers' death at the hands of a donut? The difference is that Kubrick's absurdity is intentional, meant as a statement about violence itself. The craziness in Prometheus is by accident, the result of lazy writing and probably old age.
Well, on to Prometheus, our discussion of which I feel is winding down, and I don't have a ton more to say- much to the joy of the 8 people who might read this all the way to the end. Even though I appreciate your attempt to dutifully rebut each of my examples, clearly it's just not getting anywhere, so I won't provide you any more cannon fodder. That being said (I'm sorry, I refuse to let this go), even though you claim that Vickers couldn't have gotten away from the ship by running to the side, I ask you this--how does Shaw, who is running WITH Vickers manage to escape this inescapable rolling donut of death? She doesn't even run to the side, no, she rolls three times to the side! No amount of cajoling will ever get me to believe that it is a good idea to kill a character in this way, unless that character is an animated cat.
All that aside, you ended your last email with a really interesting question, asking me if I we were coming at this movie the wrong way, and I think the answer is that we're coming at it exactly the right way, we just happen to disagree. For you, the ambition of the story and the existential themes it tries to address were enough to drown out some of the flaws in plot, characterization, etc. even to the point where you really didn't consider them to be flaws at all. For me, I can't look past some things in the movie that seem utterly ridiculous. Sometimes, that kind of thing works well in a movie, even a serious drama. One of my favorite movies is A Clockwork Orange. Clearly, that movie is packed with random, absurd scenes, dialogue, set-pieces. Why is it that I can appreciate the artistry in Kubrick's dystopian vision, but not Scott's? Is it any more absurd that Alex's gang has a fight with a rival gang where they are literally throwing each other 20 feet and making gravity-defying jump kicks than Vickers' death at the hands of a donut? The difference is that Kubrick's absurdity is intentional, meant as a statement about violence itself. The craziness in Prometheus is by accident, the result of lazy writing and probably old age.
"For you, the ambition of the story and the existential themes it tries to address were enough to drown out some of the flaws in plot, characterization, etc. even to the point where you really didn't consider them to be flaws at all. For me, I can't look past some things in the movie that seem utterly ridiculous."
I don't enjoy feeling this way about the movie. I really wanted to like it. I really wanted to stop being punked by stupid Alien movies and feeling like a chump when I get cheated out of ten bucks every few years. Unfortunately, the last one that was any good was Alien 3. I'm sure I'll get suckered again when Epimetheus or whatever the hell they'll call this thing now comes out. I just hope this time they have a consistent vision for what they want their movie to be and they follow it.
Despite my unshakable belief in the ultimate awfulness of Prometheus, I have really enjoyed doing this, and hope that maybe we can get together to discuss My Science Project or something of similar quality in the near future.
- Kevin Murray
Despite my unshakable belief in the ultimate awfulness of Prometheus, I have really enjoyed doing this, and hope that maybe we can get together to discuss My Science Project or something of similar quality in the near future.
- Kevin Murray
