Release date: June 8, 2012
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron
As the TV series Lost approached the highly-anticipated finale of its six seasons of unanswered multiple plot threads, co-creator, executive producer and head writer Damon Lindelof warned the avid audience that many questions would go unanswered. Granted, the sci-fi series dealt with over twenty principal actors, whose stories jumped decades and multiple timeframes. Even so, it seemed that Lindelof and his co-executive producer Carlton Cuse shared a tacit sense of glee in withholding … knowing that at some point, we’d all have to fend for ourselves. A cosmic joke of a sort, appropriately nodding to the title of the series itself.
As the co-writer of Prometheus, it seems that Lindelof is at it again. (The other co-writer is Jon Spaihts of 2011′s The Darkest Hour.) But given this project is a self-contained two-hour feature rather than a six-year saga, the murky story is simply maddening. Principal characters switch agendas, or never quite have them; fascinating ideas are introduced, yet end up swirling around in some amorphous hyperspace, never orbiting back; and as a quasi-prequel to Alien, this film is woefully uninspired. While the movie’s humans need to stay in a suspended hyper-sleep in barracks for two years (as the spacecraft “Prometheus” keeps on course toward its charted destination), there’s no need for us to lie in another kind of suspension, waiting nearly an hour for the first big event of this space opera to occur.
While we’re waiting, however, the view is terrific. Director Ridley Scott, returning to the sci-fi genre after three decades (1982′s Blade Runner), makes his 3D digital debut with this film. Rather than utilizing the go-to green screen and heavy-handed CGI, Scott and his crew (including production designer Arthur Max) constructed enormous sets, taking up five stages of U.K.’s Pinewood Studios. By working in actual depth, Scott & Co. allowed the 3D technique to capture a true dimensionality that we’re unused to experiencing. It is stunning.
[For Kimberly's full review on doddle, as well as her rating, please click here]