Prometheus

Directed by: Ridley Scott

Written by: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof










The debate surrounding the different interpretations of "Prometheus" can be very simply summed up:

Thinker or stinker?

I've gone back and forth between both sides, and am now firmly in the "thinker" camp.

There are many reasons why.  One, put very well by a friend whose opinion on films I take very seriously, is that the reviews that hail "Prometheus" as great tend to be very well thought out essays while the reviews that dismiss it tend to be very poorly written.  Granted, this is not a very scientific analysis, but it does reveal something significant.  Those viewers with very analytical minds were able to find a lot to appreciate in the movie, while those who were looking for a cheap thrill on a big screen were sorely disappointed.

And I initially understood their disappointment.  I felt it myself.  Watching the trailers, I was hoping for a full-on "Alien" reboot with lots of chests exploding and people blowing things up.  When those things weren't there (actually they were, but more on that in a minute), I was left shaking and scratching my  head.  I had a bitter taste in my mouth, and spent some time wondering why I didn't see all the awesome things I was hoping to see.  Then it hit me: those things I wanted to see were there, but I hadn't seen them because they weren't quite what I had anticipated.

Take, for example, the chest explosions that the original "Alien" movies made famous.  There was really only one (maybe two?) of those in "Prometheus."  But, stepping back, the essence of the chest explosions - life bursting forth mysteriously from something else - is littered throughout "Prometheus."  It happens several times, (the alien squid baby being the most notable and memorable for reasons obvious to anyone who has seen the film).  Numerous times something or someone thought dead, lifeless, devoid is revealed to be much more than they appear.  It happens over and over again, but most of us weren't able to see it.

The biggest key to the movie is to stop thinking of it as part of the "Alien" series of films.  Its connection to that series is significant, but incredibly thin.  I've found the best way to think of it is as an episode of "Lost" (where writer Damon Lindelof made his fame).  In "Prometheus" as in "Lost" there are clues, references, fleeting moments which point to something larger.  Themes, images, symbols are repeated but never explained, leaving the viewer to ponder their meaning, if any (which, in turn, has led to some absolutely wonderful discussions).  The film's ambiguity - its unwillingness to even hint at answers to its biggest questions - is what makes it a movie worth discussing.

Does the movie have some flaws?  Sure.  Some big ones, too.  Characters do things that don't make any sense.  Contradictions, like the planet being totally habitable except for those massive storms which will rip humans to shreds, are plenty.

But ultimately, the fact that there are so many discussions - and heated ones - tells me that there's something to "Prometheus" which makes it more than B-level sci-fi fodder.  See it, ponder on it, reflect on it, and tell me how anyone can argue it isn't a "thinker."

X-Men: First Class

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn

Screenplay by: Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn

Story by: Bryan Singer, Sheldon Turner

It's been a long time since we've had a good "X-Men" film. Alas, "The Last Stand" was not up to the same standard as the rest, and I'm not sure that the origin film for Wolverine really counts. In the shadow of the success of Christopher Nolan's success with his Batman reboot series (and somehow despite failure of the Superman reboot), it was only a matter of time before a new X-Men series was born.

The film begins with an evil Nazi scientist Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) experimenting on a young Magneto, finding that anger releases his power. A quick jump forward to the 1960s, a young Charles Xavier is writing papers about the evolutionary nature of genetic mutations on humans. Xavier and Magneto cross paths in an attempt to stop Shaw, and so, with some financing from the CIA, the X-Men are born. The two start rounding up young mutants and training them. Shaw shows up and convinces a few of the mutants to join his fight against humanity. The rest of the X-Men go "underground" and finish their training. Eventually (in a slight re-writing of history), Shaw tries to start World War III via the Cuban Missile Crisis, and only the X-Men can stop him. Although a nuclear war is averted, Magneto begins to ascribe to Shaw's views and leaves the X-Men, taking a few followers with him...

As an X-Men fan, I was happily pleased with this film. There are certainly some continuity issues with this film and some other minor points in the other X-Men movies, but, frankly, I didn't care. The feature I most appreciated was the telling of Magneto's story - spending time as a Nazi hunter, helping Xavier without buying into his idealism - which was often alluded to in the earlier films but largely went untold.

Both James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender both did excellent jobs of playing their characters (Xavier and Magneto, respectively) in their own unique way while also staying close to the characters which Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen had already developed. I was completely able to buy into their characters as younger versions of the characters I already know, while also understanding that the story was not necessarily a direct prequel to the earlier stories. In other words, Xavier and Magneto were rich powerful characters.

The film's flaw may have been in it's overreaching story. It tried to tell too many stories - so many that it was hard to care about all of them, and a few of them could have been cut on the editing room floor. For example, as much as I love Oliver Platt, his character was largely irrelevant and was mainly a conduit to connect Xavier to an early version of the Cerebro device. This added to the already film's already long running time. There was also a montage sequence, which I usually despise, although in his case it worked well with the comic book motif of the movie (with all those little side frames and whatnot).

The effects were impressive, if a bit cartoonish - which is fine because the movie is basically a glorified comic book. I'm not sure if some of the scenes will play well away from the big screen, but only time will tell on that.

I recommend seeing this film, especially for fans of the X-Men series. The film is not disappointing. Just remember - it's a comic-book... it's a comic-book... it's a comic-book...