There are few films released in the last few years that generated such a polarized response as Ridley Scott's Prometheus. A few months ago, Josh (an avid fan of the film) was contacted by Kevin Murray, a listener of the podcast that had a much different response. He suggested an email exchange to debate the merits and failings of this divisive film. If you have thoughts or would like to contribute to the debate, let us know. - Dietrich Stogner
When I first came up with this idea, I remembered reading your brief review of Prometheus on your website and wondering to myself if we had seen the same movie. You wrote about a sweeping sci-fi epic that grapples with the origin of existence and challenges the very notions of life and death. I saw that movie, too, but I saw it 18 months ago, and it was called The Tree of Life. Prometheus, to me, is an impostor to the class of intellectual Sci-Fi movies that are supposed to "Change the Way We Think About Ourselves" and is basically just another mediocre space thriller. Don't get me wrong--this is a real disappointment to me, because I am a huge fan of both Sci-Fi movies that "Change the Way We Think About Ourselves" (2001, Moon, Timecop, etc.) and a huge fan of the Alien series. So I went to see this really hoping that it was that movie, but unfortunately, it just isn't, for a whole host of reasons that I am sure we will touch on in subsequent emails.
Before we get to my many, many, criticisms of this movie, let's get two things out of the way. First, this movie, in places, looks absolutely gorgeous. The opening scene which tracks through the prehistoric Earthen landscape is mesmerizing, as is the scene where the ship, Prometheus, lands on the planet (LB 223 or something?). I loved Scott's choice to emphasize the smallness of the ship vs. the vastness of the Alien landscape. It is a visually compelling and narratively important choice, and goes a long way to establishing the fragile nature of the crew's presence on this planet. (But, on the other hand, shouldn't a $130 million film directed by Ridley Scott look gorgeous?) Second, Michael Fassbender is just acting on a different level than anyone else in the cast. The shots of him passing time by himself on the ship as the crew members are in stasis are amazing, and again, Scott sets an important tone with callbacks to 2001 and the tedium of deep space travel, the repetitive exercising, and the cold calculation and indifference of an artificial intelligence, and essentially wraps all of that into one character. I loved seeing an android with a little menace, and Fassbender strikes the perfect tone.
With all of that out of the way, let's take out the hatchet. One of the biggest problems I had with this movie was its narrative inconsistency. I feel like Ridley Scott was well on his way to making his intelligent, dare I say, operatic, film that explores deep questions about our existence, when some producer woke up and realized that no one had died yet. Perfectly understandable. Alien is, at its core, a horror franchise. Totally get it. Kill off a couple characters. They are, after all, on a forbidding planet where nearly anything could happen. Except, of course, the way they chose to introduce the violence seems to be totally divorced from you know, the actual story we are watching. For some reason, the evolutionary biologist sees an absolutely horrific, pale snakelike creature that rises out of black water and decides to play with it and pet it and insanely repeat how cute and beautiful it is, naturally setting himself up for an appalling death that begins by this baseball bat-sized alien viper literally burrowing up his arm.
Before we get to my many, many, criticisms of this movie, let's get two things out of the way. First, this movie, in places, looks absolutely gorgeous. The opening scene which tracks through the prehistoric Earthen landscape is mesmerizing, as is the scene where the ship, Prometheus, lands on the planet (LB 223 or something?). I loved Scott's choice to emphasize the smallness of the ship vs. the vastness of the Alien landscape. It is a visually compelling and narratively important choice, and goes a long way to establishing the fragile nature of the crew's presence on this planet. (But, on the other hand, shouldn't a $130 million film directed by Ridley Scott look gorgeous?) Second, Michael Fassbender is just acting on a different level than anyone else in the cast. The shots of him passing time by himself on the ship as the crew members are in stasis are amazing, and again, Scott sets an important tone with callbacks to 2001 and the tedium of deep space travel, the repetitive exercising, and the cold calculation and indifference of an artificial intelligence, and essentially wraps all of that into one character. I loved seeing an android with a little menace, and Fassbender strikes the perfect tone.
With all of that out of the way, let's take out the hatchet. One of the biggest problems I had with this movie was its narrative inconsistency. I feel like Ridley Scott was well on his way to making his intelligent, dare I say, operatic, film that explores deep questions about our existence, when some producer woke up and realized that no one had died yet. Perfectly understandable. Alien is, at its core, a horror franchise. Totally get it. Kill off a couple characters. They are, after all, on a forbidding planet where nearly anything could happen. Except, of course, the way they chose to introduce the violence seems to be totally divorced from you know, the actual story we are watching. For some reason, the evolutionary biologist sees an absolutely horrific, pale snakelike creature that rises out of black water and decides to play with it and pet it and insanely repeat how cute and beautiful it is, naturally setting himself up for an appalling death that begins by this baseball bat-sized alien viper literally burrowing up his arm.
"I feel like Ridley Scott was well on his way to making his intelligent, dare I say, operatic, film that explores deep questions about our existence, when some producer woke up and realized that no one had died yet."
The problem is that this would just never happen. Right?
I mean, I get the idea of getting back to the original Alien, semi-slasher roots. But the deaths in that movie felt contained and actually drove the story line. Here? Not at all. But it doesn't stop there. At the same time as the arm-burrowing snake attack, Fifield, the geologist and mapping expert (who is, inexplicably, lost, even though his whole like, job, is to chart the terrain inside the ship/dome that the crew is exploring) gets sprayed with something (acid for blood!) that melts his helmet and leaves him writhing in pain and, presumably, to die along with his sidekick, Idiot Biologist.
Except, he doesn’t die. Instead, he returns to the ship as what can only be described, depressingly, as a zombie. It is at this point that I realized that the producers of this movie are convinced that I am A) 14 B) incredibly stupid and C) think zombies are Awesome! Unfortunately, none of these things are true. I actually have a mature brain that asks questions like, “Why is Fifield now a zombie? Why does zombie Fifield feel compelled to slaughter everyone in the loading bay? Unfortunately, these events are simply never addressed again.
In another brief example of crazy narrative inconsistency, towards the end of the movie, Shaw has discovered that Weyland is actually on the ship (by the way, please tell me you found it just a little odd that she wanders in to their changing room, sweaty and covered in rags and blood, and literally convulsing from head to toe in pain/shock, and no one even raises an eyebrow and says anything, like maybe, "holy crap you're covered in blood and shaking violently, are you OK?") and in the course of their conversation screams at Weyland that they must leave immediately because of, you know all the horrible crap that is happening. So Weyland asks her how she can leave without knowing what the Engineers are. So in the NEXT SCENE, Janek comes in and says to Shaw basically exactly what she said to Weyland, that they need to leave, and she berates him for wanting to leave without knowing what they are?!? Did anyone edit this movie?
Ugh. I could go on, but I would love to get your extended thoughts on dumb zombie Fifeld and all of the other craziness that Prometheus offers. Some suggestions: the horrible dialogue, the surgery, Shaw's boyfriend, the Engineers...and on and on...
- Kevin Murray
I mean, I get the idea of getting back to the original Alien, semi-slasher roots. But the deaths in that movie felt contained and actually drove the story line. Here? Not at all. But it doesn't stop there. At the same time as the arm-burrowing snake attack, Fifield, the geologist and mapping expert (who is, inexplicably, lost, even though his whole like, job, is to chart the terrain inside the ship/dome that the crew is exploring) gets sprayed with something (acid for blood!) that melts his helmet and leaves him writhing in pain and, presumably, to die along with his sidekick, Idiot Biologist.
Except, he doesn’t die. Instead, he returns to the ship as what can only be described, depressingly, as a zombie. It is at this point that I realized that the producers of this movie are convinced that I am A) 14 B) incredibly stupid and C) think zombies are Awesome! Unfortunately, none of these things are true. I actually have a mature brain that asks questions like, “Why is Fifield now a zombie? Why does zombie Fifield feel compelled to slaughter everyone in the loading bay? Unfortunately, these events are simply never addressed again.
In another brief example of crazy narrative inconsistency, towards the end of the movie, Shaw has discovered that Weyland is actually on the ship (by the way, please tell me you found it just a little odd that she wanders in to their changing room, sweaty and covered in rags and blood, and literally convulsing from head to toe in pain/shock, and no one even raises an eyebrow and says anything, like maybe, "holy crap you're covered in blood and shaking violently, are you OK?") and in the course of their conversation screams at Weyland that they must leave immediately because of, you know all the horrible crap that is happening. So Weyland asks her how she can leave without knowing what the Engineers are. So in the NEXT SCENE, Janek comes in and says to Shaw basically exactly what she said to Weyland, that they need to leave, and she berates him for wanting to leave without knowing what they are?!? Did anyone edit this movie?
Ugh. I could go on, but I would love to get your extended thoughts on dumb zombie Fifeld and all of the other craziness that Prometheus offers. Some suggestions: the horrible dialogue, the surgery, Shaw's boyfriend, the Engineers...and on and on...
- Kevin Murray