By now a whole bunch has been written about Prometheus and its many faults and plus points have been analyzed within an inch of their lives. While it’s clearly nowhere close to perfect it had moments of awe. Pure awe. Therefore I can’t condemn it too vociferously – in today’s cinema there is so much spectacle and so little awe that we should hang on to all the awe we can. I do, however, want to highlight one of the elements that was sorely lacking; the monsters.
Beware: spoilers ahoy after the jump.
Revisiting the Alien universe was always going to be a risk for Ridley Scott. Alien was the film that cemented his reputation as a visionary auteur and is rightly regarded as a classic, a sublime example of atmospheric horror. Three sequels of varying quality established a sprawling world, one that Scott had long hinted that he was interested in exploring further, his interest particularly piqued by the mysterious Space Jockey, whose fleeting glimpse in his original work posed questions that have never been answered. Whilst Prometheus puts that quandary to bed, its ambitions and scale are far loftier than merely acting as a prequel to the series, which proves to be a refreshing yet frustrating approach.
Helen Cox edits New Empress Magazine, and she’s got something to say.
Don’t know if you’d heard, but last week Ridley Scott released his first sci-fi film since the 1982 genre breakthrough: Blade Runner. You may also have heard that a lot of people came out after seeing this film feeling disappointed, disgruntled and confused. The probable problem? They believed the hype.
According to a recent press release, Alcon Entertainment’s much-anticipated sequel to Blade Runner will reunite Ridley Scott with original scribe Hampton Fancher.
Prometheus has one hell of an identity crisis. Is it a prequel to Alien? A brand new science fiction epic with vague echoes of Ridley Scott's classic? Another story set in the same universe with a slight bit of connective tissue? It doesn't help that Sir Ridley himself has refused to confirm anything, just kind of vaguely stating that it started it out as a quasi-Alien prequel before branching out to becoming something bigger and less finite. However, Marc Streitenfeld's music score to the film has just been released digitally and it contains a few clues to what Prometheus really is and also perhaps if it'll be any good.
A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.
The past two weeks have been pretty big trailer wise, including the latest releases for three of this summer’s most anticipated films: Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man. Could it get any better? Aside from a couple of other new trailers, namely the first for Ruben Fleischer’s The Gangster Squad, not really. Whilst we have quite a few new films to discuss, they just don’t include any Dark Knights or a Ryan Gosling. Still, we can’t always be that picky.
Prometheus is coming in two weeks, so the all-encompassing marketing blitz has no reason to slow down now. EW have released 17 brand new images: promotional shots, production stills and behind the scenes images.
UK genre fans can finally sigh with relief as Prometheus receives a 15 age certificate.
Guillermo Del Toro addresses the status of his adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, claiming Prometheus may render it unnecessary.
Prometheus better be worth it.
