Review: "Prometheus"

Down to its title, Ridley Scott's Prometheus, the director's return to science fiction after three decades, has some lofty ambitions. Opening with shots of a primordial earth that recall moments of last year's The Tree of Life (well, until the hulking white alien shows up...), Scott's film, written by Jon Spaihts and Lost alum Damon Lindelof, though executed beautifully in terms of atmosphere, can't quite muster the courage to fully follow through on its somewhat lazy attempt at grandiose wonderment about our place in the universe. Still, the film's successes, of which there are plenty, deserve credit, and as far as being an engaging, well-crafted ride goes, Prometheus hits all of the right notes, even as it fails to launch into the same legendary stratosphere as Scott's previous sci-fi endeavors. 


After a beautiful prologue that captures the mysterious origins of all life on earth (DNA strands exploding out of a single, towering creature as it decomposes), the story proper begins with a team of archaeologists in Scotland. At a cave in the Skye Islands, the team has discovered a 35,000 year old cave with a painting that appears to show a large figure pointing toward a cluster of stars. Chief among the group are Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), who are also romantically involved. Their discovery, the latest in a series of digs conducted over several years, finally gives them enough evidence to receive funding from the powerful Weyland Corporation to find the star cluster, and see if there are any planets capable of sustaining life. The goal, at least for the archaeologists, is to see if mankind can truly meet its makers.


And, for roughly 45 minutes (an hour?), Prometheus remains set in a state of calm, just as Alien did decades ago before letting hell break loose. We witness the ship's Peter O'Toole-idolizing android, David (Michael Fassbender) waking the ship's crew up from deep sleep, and though David's presence sets the scenes apart from the complete stillness of Alien's opening, there remains something oddly magnetic about the sequence. It's in this first hour that Scott shows what made his first two forays into sci-fi so special: a willingness to take time, and slowly build a sense of place and atmosphere. Whether it's on board the titular transport/research vessel, or on the planet the crew lands on, the production design and visual effects create a remarkably tactile world, one that doesn't feel overly reliant on nice-looking, but plastic-y digital creations. As captured by cinematographer Darius Wolski, the locales of Prometheus posses a cold, at times slimy sheen that only adds to the overall feel. Even in the dark, subterranean exploration scenes when the team first enters a massive pyramid, there remains a sense of clarity to the imagery.


That the film gets the tone right so early on is an obvious boon to the overall effect. The performances are effective as well, although the size of the cast means that there are quite a few throwaway characters who are merely there for bad things to befall them. When the actors come through, however, they shine, even as Spaihts and Lindelof's script leaves them lost in space without much in the way of arcs. Rapace, most famous for being the original girl with the dragon tattoo, makes an appealing heroine, with a nice mix of vulnerability and steely determination. The combo comes in handy when the actress is required to go through a bit of Cronenberg-esque body horror in a scene that, while never reaching the impact of a certain moment from Alien, will surely leave many uncomfortably squirming in their seats. Fassbender's fastidious android is also fun to watch, with his mix of calculated distance and semi-human behavior proving to be one of the film's most intriguing mysteries. It's one of the few times that Fassbender has avoided injecting a true element of emotional vulnerability into a role, and thankfully it pays off and makes David more interesting to watch. Marshall-Green, as the science-first counterpart (as contrasted with the Christian Dr. Shaw), has some nice moments as well, although he's ultimately not given much that distinguishes him from the lower rungs of the ensemble aside from more face-time. Finally there's Charlize Theron, in her second icy role of the summer, remaining pretty one-note, while still being a compelling presence. Watching her yank David aside to pull information out of him is one of the most suspenseful scenes in the film, and there's nary a slimy monster in sight.


And speaking of slimy monsters, don't worry, Prometheus has its share. Whether it's the serpentine first creature the team encounters - which, when closed up, looks like an icky, pale tulip from the bowels of hell - or the tentacled menace that finds its way into a crew member, the creature designs and effects all come through. They're entirely CGI creations, yet they're rendered and shot with such skill that they feel uncomfortably real and dangerous. Only a large, squid-like monster fails to feel fully tactile; the bigger the creation, somehow the less real it feels.


Yet for all of its strengths in production design, direction, and atmosphere, Prometheus has, to invoke another name of myth, an Achilles Heel. The culprit is, unfortunately, the script. After opening such grand possibilities on the thematic front with the opening, Spaihts and Lindelof settle for a more routine execution that never quite follows through on its potential. The quest for mankind's origins and our place in the universe becomes more plot-point than theme, so that even when the film reaches its conclusion, it fails to inspire the same sense of awe that the visuals do. The direction manages to elevate the material and create some truly exceptional moments, but by the time Prometheus settles into its hectic final act, the weaknesses of the writing become too apparent to ignore, even as the film remains an entertaining journey. The first encounter with an alien creature, though effectively unsettling, is undermined by the outright stupidity of one minor character ("hey, look! some creepy snake creature. I should totally try to interact with it! No way that it will do anything aggressive!"). Character development also gets tossed aside, even with Shaw, the character most ripe with potential for a full, satisfying arc. As things get more hectic, Prometheus simply abandons attempts at ideas in order to simply satisfy the thrill-ride quota, which ends up leaving the last act feeling overly long. There's a handful of mini-conclusions that feel like they should segue into the very end, only for the film to keep going.


Yet despite its flaws, it's hard to deny that Prometheus succeeds in enough places (though perhaps not brilliantly so) that it works, even as it devolves into a more standard sci-fi thriller as it progresses. The ideas are admirable on paper, though on screen they feel more like hastily sketched out premises that the writers forgot to follow through on. Still, once one removes the pretense of Spaihts and Lindelof's writing, what remains is still a rollicking, atmospheric, gorgeously-rendered slice of science fiction, filled with enough tension and thrills to make it memorable, albeit not to point where we'll be talking about it years from now. Whereas Scott's other two sci-fi films both made significant stylistic and thematic contributions to the genre, Prometheus is merely a nicely-handled entry that boosts its profile, without doing anything to give it a special place in the sci-fi canon. 


Grade: B

[EDIT]IMAX & Theatrical Trailers : "Prometheus"

It may be unconventional (and inexcusably nerdy), but I think this may be my favorite thing to happen on St. Patrick's Day this year: the release of a brand new IMAX trailer for Ridley Scott's Prometheus, which is doing its best to not get mistaken for an Alien prequel...even though it might be one anyway. The trailer keeps the suspense up without giving up an ounce a plot, which I really love, especially seeing as we're in an age where big-budget films spoil 2/3s of the film in their promotional material. The production design and VFX look outstanding, and the cast is, as I've said before, loaded with charisma and talent. There may be no Sigourney Weaver among this group to grab a surprise Oscar nomination, but at the very least we can rest easy that this blockbuster material will be played out by actors with range and depth, and that's always comforting. Ridley Scott has certainly had his ups and downs over the past decades, but his return to sci-fi continues to look extraordinarily promising.

Trailer Grade: A

And now, just a day later, we have a full-blown theatrical trailer. This is the first time that any proper sense of plot has been revealed, and yet still, Prometheus remains shrouded in mystery, and the marketing team deserves high praise for it. There's enough here to let people in who want a taste of the plot, but no hints toward the actual progression of events (other than the crew landing and discovering things aren't as they seem). And despite how high the bar was set with the film's teaser trailer and IMAX trailer (the one above), the marketing team has truly outdone themselves here, giving us an incredibly intense look at a richly conceived and gorgeously rendered sci-fi world. Clearly the film relies heavily on VFX work, yet it all looks so beautiful and textured that it lacks that plastic, weightless feel that plagues so many overblown summer spectacles. Look out, Christopher Nolan; The Dark Knight Rises officially has its biggest competition (at least in terms of likely quality, if not box office) of the summer. Welcome back, Ridley Scott.

Trailer Grade: A+

One step forward, two steps backward: Trailers to ring in 2012

Even though we're still dealing with awards season craziness, it's never too soon to start looking past the acceptance speeches and trophies, and into what cinema holds in store for us in the new year. Over the past two weeks, three trailers have emerged for three very big potential blockbusters. One is a sequel, while the other two are prequels (more or less). And all three have one thing in common: insanely high expectations.

When your previous film develops rabid fanboys, becomes a massive box office success, and scores an actor an Oscar, all while being a super hero movie, the next installment is under scrutiny from day one. That's certainly been the case with Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, the director's final contribution to Batman's cinematic legacy. Everything has been picked apart, and concerns have been raised regarding everything from casting to costume choices. With the release of the first full trailer, however, Nolan's latest is finally putting some (or at least, my) worries to rest. The trailer covers quite a lot thematically without spelling out the specific direction of the plot. It also gives us some nice looks at Tom Hardy as Bane, and Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, who shakes off her rom-com personality to inject a surprising amount of menace. The actions scenes look intense, and the idea of Gotham actually falling into chaos (a fulfillment of the Arkham breakout in Batman Begins) looks like an interesting way to bring Nolan's trilogy full-circle. Oh, and the creepy chanting that plays over the last half of the footage? Perfection.

Trailer Grade: A-

Next we have Prometheus, Ridley Scott's long-gestating prequel-but-it-sort-of-isn't to Alien. Boasting a stellar ensemble, the film's entire look is fantastic, and I can't wait to see more footage. We need another well made, big budget sci-fi flick to counterbalance the likes of Transformers. That eerie, monolithic face statue, as well as that strange crescent structure are enough to get me hooked from a visual standpoint. Even more interesting will be to see the creation footage that Scott and crew were reportedly filming in Iceland. On a nerdier note, it will be interesting to see how the film plays off of its mythically based title. Given the film's tag line, it's probably meant to be a rather dark variation. Scott has been a bit of a slump that past few years, but here's hoping that a return to sci-fi will help him return to his best. Love that gradual reveal of the title too.

Trailer Grade: B+

Finally, we come to the most troubled of the three: Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The first of two films covering the novel (part two hits in 2013), the film has struggled to move ahead with production. Guillermo Del Toro was originally set to direct, before financial and legal issues delayed the start of shooting so much that he bailed. Jackson is back in the chair, which is reasurring that at least it will be the exact same vision as before. Let's just hope it doesn't end up feeling, stale, though. The footage is relatively simple, not showing anything epic, and focusing more on the characters and the lighter nature of the narrative. A lot of the footage still needs to be color-graded, but overall I'm very hopeful that the long-delayed return to Middle Earth will be worth it. The film is being shot on cutting-edge technology at the highest frame rate ever for a major motion picture. How this will affect the film, for better or for worse, remains to be seen, but at the very least it will help the film feel slightly different. Now if only we can get around to seeing some footage of Smaug...

Trailer Grade: B

Review: "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"

When I reviewed Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009), I made a remark that his set-up of the character followed a path eerily similar to that of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005). Both films took a classic character and reinvented them, while squaring them off with a relatively mundane antagonist. Both films also concluded with a set-up for a sequel that would introduce the hero's most famous villain. For Batman, it was the Joker, as embodied by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight (2008); for Holmes, it's Prof. Moriarty. Both characters represent the ultimate challenges for their respective protagonists. They are, essentially, their doubles; the corrupted versions of the heroes had they fallen into a path of darkness. The big difference, at least on screen, is that where Mr. Nolan's sequel was a grander, richer, darker film, Mr. Ritchie's follow-up gives us more of the Holmes that audiences loved two years ago, only with diminished results.

Opening some vague amount of time after the '09 film, A Game of Shadows quickly plunges us into a world uncomfortably close to war. A series of assassinations and bombings have put mainland Europe on edge. For Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.), however, it can all be traced to Prof. Moriarty (Mad Men's Jared Harris), even though he doesn't have the concrete evidence to prove it. At the same time, Holmes must deal with the potential loss of his closest ally, Dr. Watson (Jude Law), who is about to get married. Things change, however, when Holmes and Moriarty start to clash, and the pair must find a way to prevent the Professor from setting the entire continent ablaze with war.

Yet whatever fun there was in Ritchie's take on the classic Conan Doyle character in the first go-round suddenly seems depleted here. The opening sequences, which reintroduce Rachel McAdams' Irene Adler, fail to stick, even though they directly involve Moriarty himself. Rather than advance the world he established last time, Ritchie appears to have become lazy here, and the flow of scenes often feels like it's missing a certain extra oomph. Even the fight scenes, which start off with Holmes playing through possible scenarios in his head before progressing to the real action, don't inspire the same level of fun they did just two years ago. While the portions that take place in Holmes' mind remain effective (and they lead to a fun twist on the concept at the conclusion), the actual fights feel sloppily staged and edited. When showing the nuts and bolts of how things work in drastic close-ups and slow motion, whether it's a fight scene or the firing of a machine gun, A Game of Shadows has some spark to it. But when it gets around to the more mundane parts of its action, the staging and choreography seem to vanish and become replaced with rapid-fire cuts.

This would be a smaller complaint were there not so many other unfortunate issues. The biggest problem the film has, a crucial flaw for an adventure of its nature, is the characters. At the outset, Holmes almost doesn't feel like himself; it's as if Downey Jr. decided to dispense with his previous interpretation and try his hand at a less wacky/drunk Jack Sparrow. The odd choice vanishes after the first 20 minutes or so, but it's puzzling nonetheless. Once it's gone, though, Downey Jr. becomes the Holmes that was so popular (and earned him a surprise victory at the Golden Globes) last time. Law's Watson remains the same, making a nice bro-mantic foil for Downey Jr., though never feeling quite as integral to the plot as he should. Noomi Rapace (the original Lisbeth Salander) is also here, but not given nearly enough to do, despite her connection to the story. Jared Harris, on the other hand, has enough to do, and makes for an effective Moriarty. The problem with the character, however, lies in the script. He and Holmes meet face-to-face as enemies quite early on. It's a technique that could have resulted in a devilishly clever battle of wits, but the film sidelines Harris too often. Worse, Moriarty's big scheme, evil though it may be, isn't executed on screen in a manner that makes it feel worthy of the character's reputation.

That's not to say that this is a completely joyless exercise, however. Though the humor doesn't work nearly as well as it did in the previous film, Downey Jr. and Law's chemistry remains firmly intact. And as over-stylized as some of the action sequences may be in their use of slow-motion, their slick assembly is a fun distraction from the otherwise middle of the road execution. A Game of Shadows does have a saving grace though, and it comes in where it counts: the ending. The film's entire last act, set in a Swiss castle perched on a waterfall, is an absolute blast, resulting in a face-off both physical and mental that is allowed to run its course, rather than be cut short for the sake of finding an ending. It's really a shame that everything that came before couldn't have been more effective, because by the time the film rolled around to its conclusion, I was ready to forgive it for its missteps. Unfortunately, as fun as the final act is, it can't undo the flaws that came before it, even though I'll bet that Mr. Ritchie really wishes that it could.

Grade: C+

Trailer: "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"

I'm a little late on posting the first trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, thanks to the time difference. Robert Downey Jr.'s second franchise at the moment has finally given us a first look (the film arrives in December), and it looks like more of the same, in a good way. And even though former casting candidate Daniel Day Lewis is no longer involved (as the film's villain, no less), I'm still excited to see Guy Ritchie's follow-up to his 2009 action-mystery because of two words: Noomi Rapace. The former girl with the dragon tattoo is officially stepping out into Hollywood, and I love that her role, as the gypsy Sim, is going to be a major one. It must be pretty nice being the first person seen and heard in a big budget film with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

On the other hand, what's disappointing is how little fuss is made over Jared Harris as the film's villain. Dr. Moriarty is the Sherlock Holmes villain, essentially the Joker or Lex Luthor of Arthur Conan Doyle's universe, yet the trailer presents as being just as minor as Mark Strong's Lord Blackwood from the first film. As far as the rest goes, the chemistry between Downey Jr. and Law looks unchanged (I mean that as a compliment), though it worries me that the "get what's in your hand out of my face" joke is back. Too many recurring jokes/set-ups could stymie whatever growth Holmes and Watson's relationship goes through this time around. Then again, the jokes in the first film generally worked, and there's always Hans Zimmer's score (which got a well deserved Oscar nomination last time) to liven things up. Let's just hope that Guy Ritchie and crew don't give us too much of the same, though; we don't need another Hangover: Part II sequel this year.

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" - REVIEW

The single eye-catching, fabulous image in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, is that of punk hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) walking down a dingy corridor in full uber-goth regalia: lots of spikes, clinking metal accessories, dark eye make-up, and a mohawk that looks like it belongs on top of a Roman helmet. This is the ultimate Lisbeth, the borderline fantasy look of Stieg Larsson's creation, and like the character in the novels, it's sorely out of place in material that is far beneath it.

So many cinematic adaptations of novels are beaten up by those who read the source material first. It's usually a case of fans feeling as though the story or characters have been gutted for some less-than-artistic-reason. Sadly that's not the case with the "Girl" films, because their source material was never that strong to begin with. Lisbeth Salander really deserves to be the star of a much better series, and yet unfortunately she's trapped in a so-so trilogy and equally so-so film trilogy. In fact, the only thing overly positive I can say about Hornet's Nest is that it's a step up from the god-awful previous installment, The Girl Who Played With Fire.

Picking up immediately from where Fire left off, Hornet's Nest begins with Lisbeth being flown to a hospital, bloody, dirt-covered, and with a bullet lodged in her brain. As she begins to make her painful recovery, Mikael Blomqvist (the blaaaaaaaand Mikael Nyqvist) begins work on a publishing a sprawling account of the injustices Lisbeth has endured, seeing as her trial will begin as soon as her medical recovery is complete. Meanwhile, the Evil folks at The Section, a select group of corrupt members of the Swedish government, try to figure out how best to deal with the hospitalized Salander.

The big problem with all of this boils down to two major points, both of which are taken directly from the novel. The first is that the central duo of Salander and Blomqvist spend even less time together than they did before. If my memory serves me correctly, the pair share barely two scenes together. For Salander's part this is bearable, but not so for Blomqvist. As embodied by Nyqvist, the character has become even less interesting than he was in the previous films. Having him bounce off of Salander is the only thing that made Larsson's lame author-insert remotely intriguing. But the bigger problem here, though, is that Lisbeth's role feels diminished in what should be her story. We spend much more time looking at the team of the Millennium Magazine in this installment, and even though it's necessary, it doesn't really help that much. Lisbeth is the character worth rooting for; she's the victim of horrific injustice, not Blomqvist or Erika (Lena Endre, looking slightly confused in most scenes).

Worse, the film seems to be consciously trying to fix some of the mistakes that director Daniel Alfredson and screenwriter Jonas Frykberg made in Fire, namely, the involvement of the police force characters. Officers Bublanski and Modig, who are given so much time in the books and at least have a decent number of lines (well...sort of) in the film, are close to non-entities in Hornet's Nest, which only illustrates what a mistake it was to try and give them even table scraps in the last installment. And speaking of table scraps, that's more or less what Rapace has to work with. The story requires her to simply be silent for a good portion, and then when opportunities for her to shine arise, they rarely come through. Granted, the silence is part of the character, but here it just feels frustrating. The only thing really satisfying about the performance are the 3 (maybe four) times that Salander smiles, and I'm using that term lightly; they're a perfect fit for the character, and are among the few, if not only, little details in the film that work.

And then, when the film finally goes through its lumpy, misshapen plot, complete with a tacked-on fight after the legal drama is over, it ends on a frustrating note. I won't spoil it, but let's just say that while it's not supposed to be a big moment, the timing and editing don't really allow the scene to sink in, making the strange cut to a wide shot of Stockholm (over which the credits roll) feel like an awkward question mark. It's a shame really that such a remarkable character is being given such a thoroughly unremarkable send-off. As I've said before, these films only make me welcome the American remake even more. The saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," but as far as the source novels and their Swedish adaptations are concerned, there's plenty that's "broke."

Grade: C