PROMETHEUS

PROMETHEUS (2012)
US
Directed by Ridley Scott

CAST:
Noomi Rapace - Elizabeth Shaw
Michael Fassbender - David
Charlize Theron - Meredith Vickers

PLOT:
     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.

REVIEW:
     I usually start my reviews with random thoughts and such, yet with this one I decided to put down a quote from H.P. Lovecraft instead as it says everything quite perfectly about the Alien franchise including this one,

    

"The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain -- a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the dæmons of unplumbed space."
― H. P. Lovecraft, 'Supernatural Horror in Literature'

      While everyone is saying how much the film is stolen by Michael Fassbender as David, I'll get to him in a second, Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw to me is the best actor in the film. Rapace's character will no doubt be compared to Ripley as both are strong female leads in a hopeless situation. The reason why I'm saying this is plain and simple the film is about her and the faith she has then loses. Rapace adds a softness to the character that all the other characters are lacking. This doesn't mean that she is the weakest character, in fact this adds a humanity to her that saves her life at one point in the movie.  Michael Fassbender's David is the quirkiest character in the film as we the viewers can tell that he is always thinking, or processing if you want, of the other characters and what makes them different and what motivates their actions. There is a childlike quality to David that Fassbender adds to the role that almost makes you feel betrayed after watching some of David's actions he takes against the crew. These actions aren't out of cruelty or revenge, but out of more curiosity and wonderment at what would happen and his questioning of his own role among humanity. Charlize Theron's Meredith Vickers was the one true question mark out of all the characters as she is mostly always seen standing away from everyone and tries to keep the entire crew at arms length. The reason for this is explained later on in the film and up until a certain point the viewers may think that Vickers is actually a second android next to David, though you find out that she is in fact human and a very weak one at that as she seems to lose composure whenever her authority is threatened or a order is disobeyed. Despite Vickers' icy exterior inside she is severely insecure and is trying to overcompensate for that fact.

     I will admit that before I saw Prometheus that I read a couple of reviews. One thing I've noticed about them is that they either loved the movie or hated it. So much so in fact that the two sides have broken down to name calling on some boards. And do not doubt that you will either love the movie or hate it as there really is no in-between when it comes to this. This has to do with that the fact that the movie asks you to think, which is almost a unheard of these days. It asks us to get the notion of God out of our heads and in it's place to put in a notion that takes hold throughout the film. What if we were made by another alien race. Would you be willing to have all that you hold true, that wall that we built, knocked down to truly know the truth. These are lofty questions that most everyone can understand and it is these questions that are the foundations of the story to Prometheus. On the flip side is the mythology aspect of Prometheus. The one where the Gods become pissed at the titan Prometheus and punish him for giving fire to the humans. For giving them knowledge. What is not widely known is that by giving humans knowledge, it is this knowledge that helped mankind stop their own destruction from the Gods.  The knowledge being sought in this is why did, as Elizabeth Shaw puts them, the Engineers create humans. For what purpose. Yet by the end of the film this question has changed to why are they, the Engineers, trying to destroy us. Did we overstep our bounds by learning and asking to much? While not all the answers are giving in the film some are answered. Another interesting story point that is brought up in the film is that the planet the crew find the Engineers on turns out to be a staging point, or to put it more simply, a military installation. The one bad aspect of this is that how they came to this conclusion or found out is not giving. This is more than likely from a cut scene that explains how they found out. This is the only real slight I found with the film. Ridley Scott set the film up this way for a reason and I can't thank him enough for making a film that is smart and doesn't take the idiot route that most do.

      Director Ridley Scott has done something that I thought really wasn't possible after so many years of bad movies that had the xenomorphs in them and that is to make the alien films mean something again, while creating something completely new with something that could be just as deadly and potentially more dangerous with the Engineers, or as they are more well known as the race that is the Space Jockeys. The film is beautifully shot with a even hand that doesn't pull away from a shot. When what action there is happens the camera doesn't pull away from it, try to hide or make the camera shake to make it seems like there is more going on than there really is. What we are seeing is what is happening, nothing more or less. Prometheus is more about the tension and the unknown. Most of what is happening cannot be explained, and that makes the film more powerful. As we are there as an observer only, not everything is explained and I think that is what makes most people hate the film. There are stand out scenes that are amazing to watch and see and I'm not going to go into those scenes as to go into it will ruin it. What I will say is that if you can watch it in 3D, do so. While a lot of the films that are using the format to make things pop out on the screen or for a quick jolt to the audience, Scott does something different. Scott uses the format to help the film and not for thrill, but to enhance what is shown and help add depth to what is being seen. The reason for this is that this is not a small movie, in fact Prometheus is a far reaching film that has ideas that pushes the audience and what is being seen has to match it as well. And the visuals do. What also helps with this is the use of as much in-camera effects as possible. Prometheus is a film that will with time become more accepted such as a lot of Ridley Scott's other works have become. But to me this film is a classic already as it pushes boundaries and ideas and isn't afraid to leave it up to the viewer to think for theirself.

BEST DEATH:
      Fifield's melting doom.

BEST LINE:
     You know what this place is? Hell.

FUN FACTS:
     Designer and artist H.R. Giger, who worked on the original design of the Xenomorph Alien, was brought in to assist in reverse-engineering the design of the Aliens in the film.

     Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski convinced Ridley Scott that it would be possible to shoot the film in 3D with the same ease and efficiency of typical filming. 3D company 3ality Technica provided some of the rigs and equipment to facilitate 3D filming, and trained the film's crew in their proper operation. Since 3D films need high lighting levels on set, the traditional dark shadowy atmosphere of the Alien films was added in post-production through grading processes, while the 3D equipment will be based on post Avatar technology. Supposedly the first quarter of the film was finished filming when the decision to film it in full 3D was agreed upon causing the shot scenes to be re-shot in 3D.

     During production Ridley Scott kept the use of computer-generated imagery as low as possible, using CGI mainly in space scenes; Scott recalled advice VFXpert Douglas Trumbull gave him on the set of Blade Runner: "If you can do it live, do it live", and also claimed that practical VFX was more cost-effective than digital VFX. And in my opinion look better as well.

     Ridley Scott and James Cameron both were working on a sequel to Alien franchise in 2002 together that would explore the engineered origin of the aliens in the film series, when both dropped out due to Fox's greenlighting of Alien Vs. Predator. Cameron was very vocal about the potential of the cross-over ruining both franchises and wanted nothing to do with Fox's influence on any Alien sequel do to it.

     According to Ridley Scott, the film's plot was inspired by Erich von Daniken's writings about ancient astronauts: "Both NASA and the Vatican agree that it is almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today, without there being a little help along the way. That's what we're looking at: we are talking about gods and engineers, engineers of space. Were the Aliens designed as a form of biological warfare, or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?"

ALIENS

ALIENS (1986)
US/UK
Directed by James Cameron

CAST:
Sigourney Weaver - Ellen Ripley
Carrie Henn - Rebecca 'Newt' Jorden
Michael Biehn - Cpl. Dwayne Hicks

PLOT:
     The planet from Alien has been colonized yet contact with them has been lost. A team of Colonial Marines is sent to find out what happened.

REVIEW:
     Aliens was the first film in the Alien series I saw. I got to watch it when it first came on HBO back in the late 80's. I remember hearing my sister's friends talking about it and how when they saw it in theaters it scared the shit out of them. By this time my love of horror films was growing at an exceptional rate with having watched multiple films on VHS that my dad rented for me as I would watch them on Friday nights after my parents went to bed. Also during this time HBO would show really odd horror films late at night on the weekends also as the USA network would show unedited films sometimes on Up All Night on their networks. Well anyway, Aliens came on HBO finally and I was able to watch it despite my parents protest that I wasn't quite old enough yet to view it and understand some of the situations involved in it. Needless to say I understood everything in the film, but it still gave me nightmares for about a week anyway. In fact I can easily say that this film is probably what started my love of H.P. Lovecraft stories and the Mythos involved with it as well though Alien is more in line with it.

This is a review for the Director's cut of the film.

I complained about Sigourney Weaver, who reprises her role as Ellen Ripley, in my review for Alien, and I'm sticking by what I said. Yet in Aliens, Weaver's acting is almost as if there is a whole nother Weaver acting. The emotions she shows are believable, and she actually draws the viewer into the world. Weaver just has a presence in this where as in Alien she was more like a background wall or a mouse. It's her confidence in her ability as an actor that is such a relief to see.  Michael Biehn, who plays Cpl. Hicks, also grew as an actor since his last role he was in, which was also a sci-fi film. There's two really interesting characters in Aliens that stick out from the rest, one of which is Pvt. Hudson played by Bill Paxton. Paxton's character is one of the two as in the film as at first he's the jokester who with the rest of the marines think nothing can defeat them and that they are the best there is. His whole world is changed in minutes once he and the rest of the marines go up against the aliens for the first time. The other character that sticks out is Newt played Carrie Henn. Henn for a first time actress and in her only film role brings a fear to the screen that isn't seen by someone her age very often. But it's her growing trust and her ability to show that trust as it grows that helps the character seem more real and that helps draw the audience into the relationship she has with Ripley which I'll go into next. But I do have to say that every actor and actress in Aliens does an amazing job.

I would be remiss to not mention Lance Henrickson's Bishop. His character is a major plot point in the film as it shows a maturation in Ripley's character. When Ripley is found after 57 years she hasn't moved on but the world around her has. Her mistrust of androids due to Ash is engraved into her after her old crew was betrayed by it. Bishop shows that there has been improvements in science and that what she once feared can be more human than the actual people around her. Yet the main story is about  Ripley as she is a person misplaced in time and a person that lost everything, including her daughter due to the passage of that time. Ripley up to the point where she finds Newt at Hadley's Hope is almost a basket case due to nightmares and PTSD. It's in Newt that Ripley finds a way out of her fear as she views Newt as a replacement for her daughter. As someone she she can protect and in that way she is Ripley's one hope for a life she lost and in a way to try to have a normal life throughout the craziness surrounding her. Newt is in the same position as Ripley as she has lost everything in her life; her family, her home, her peace, and her hope of surviving. Newt sees Ripley after their first meeting in suspicion, someone who won't be able to keep her promise. Yet by the end of the film the bond between Ripley and Newt grows more into a mother and daughter relationship. Newt even calls Ripley mother after she saves her from the alien queen which makes the story all the more powerful as you were seeing the bonds form but didn't realize it as the action was front and center.

I mentioned before that Aliens scared the shit out of me when I watched it. The reason for this is the aliens plain and simple. Unlike in Alien, the aliens in this one are much more animalistic and can be seen as thinking animals as they learn through experience. Also previously we only were able to see the alien in shadows or very quick shots. In Aliens the creatures are in full view even though we don't know that until it's to late as they are fully camouflaged within their environment.  By the time we see them another body is added to the count. The design for the aliens is also updated and they are much more mobile than in Alien. James Cameron has done something that few directors have managed to do and that's to make a sequel that outdoes the original in every way. Cameron tells a story that starts out slow and then slowly builds as his characters we as viewers know are heading to their death. Even though most of the characters seem cartoonish in certain ways, we find ourselves rooting for them to survive though we know they won't. It takes almost an hour for the action to kick in and by that time over half of the crew  meet their end, but during that time we get to know them and their quirks and how they are one hell of a disfunctional family. After everything goes to hell Cameron does what Alien didn't and that is to ratchet the tension up minute by minute where it's almost unbearable, but at the same time the film is still fun as we are still hoping those that are alive will stay alive, though again we know not all will. The office fire fight is one of the best action set pieces I've seen and even with repeat viewings it has never lost any of its power. The same can be said for the film as a whole as there is always something new I see every time I watch it.  And that is the true sign that Aliens stands the test of time and is considered a modern day classic film.

BEST DEATH:
     Even though it's not a death, Bishop's splitting meeting of the queen.

BEST LINE:
     We're on an express elevator to hell, going down!

FUN FACTS:
     During the scene when they have landed and deployed in the troop carrier, Apone tells the Marines they have 10 seconds until they arrive. If you count from here until the first Marine jumps out of the carrier and his boots hit the ground, it really is ten seconds.

     Was voted the 42nd Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly. They describe it as the "greatest pure action movie ever."

     One of the alien eggs used in the film is now exhibited in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

     In both the standard and special edition versions, the fifteen minute countdown at the end of the film is indeed fifteen minutes.

     To bring the alien queen to life it took anything between 14 and 16 operators.

     United States Colonial Marines personnel service numbers:

• SFC Apone, A A19/TQ4.0.32751E8
• Pt Crowe, T A46/TQ1.0.98712E6
• Cpl Dietrich, C A41/TQ8.0.81120E2
• Pt Drake, M A23/TQ2.0.47619E7
• Cpl Ferro, C A71/TQ9.0.09428E1
• Pt Frost, R A17/TQ4.0.61247E5
• Lt Gorman, S A09/TQ4.0.56124E3
• Cpl Hicks, D A27/TQ4.0.48215E9
• Pt Hudson, W A08/TQ1.0.41776E3
• Pt Spunkmeyer, D A23/TQ6.0.92810E7
• Pt Vasquez, J A03/TQ7.0.15618E4
• Pt Wierzbowski, T A14/TQ8.0.20034E7

ALIEN

ALIEN (1979)
US/UK
Directed by Ridley Scott

CAST:
Tom Skerritt - Dallas
Sigourney Weaver - Ripley
Veronica Cartwright - Lambert

PLOT:
     A deep space mining vessel receives a strange beacon signal from a uninhabited planet.

REVIEW:
     This is the first review that is the lead up to Prometheus as I wanted to do something special with the film. So I thought why not do reviews for Alien and Aliens before the review for the prequel. I'll admit that Alien wasn't the first one of these I watched due to when I was about nine years old I was unlucky enough to see a book at a library in Martinsville, Virginia. Now this book, from what I remember of it, reminds me now of the modern day making of books that the bigger films have out right now. Now just to give you a clue as to my film viewing at that moment in time, I was treated to a Conan the Barbarian and The Sword and the Sorcerer double feature in a empty movie theater with my dad and the projectionist when I was eight years old. Which was awesome by the way! Now this book had images from the chestburster scene which freaked me out and scared me from watching the film for about five plus years. I said I was unlucky yet in reality that images staid with me throughout my childhood as I wanted to see what was going on. How is what I saw possible I always thought after seeing those pictures. Now when I think about Alien, well, I'll let the review really tell you what I think below.

     This is a review for the director's cut of the film.

     Thirty three years after it's initial release Alien has lost none of it's impact. In the week leading up to the release of Prometheus I decided to review the main Alien movies to re-acquaint myself with the universe LV-426 inhabits. The production design on Alien still leaves me in awe as you do not see sets that are built like that anymore. Where no level of detail is overlooked. To actually working steampipes, to the bunk area for the crew that each had their own look. Yet the main reason why the sets are so impressive for Alien is due to that the alien could be hiding anywhere in most of the places shown. The reason why I'm going into the set design first is because the Nostromo is and of itself a whole other character in the film. Another design that the film was known for was for the alien itself, as the alien is a nightmare made real and viewable. If only for seconds at a time. It wasn't designed to be shown in a lot of light and be out in the open. The main design property of it was to be hidden and barely be shown.  A lot of the reasoning behind this is that it's a old film psychological trick. The less you show something, except for in quick flashes of it,  in return makes the audience use their imagination more which most of the time is always worse that what can possible be shown. I know I've mentioned that in previous reviews, but it is true and will always be true as the viewer cannot help but to fill in the gaps that are missing.

     The cast in Alien was also well put together, baring one exception and that being Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. I'm not saying she did poorly in the role, it's just that her performance doesn't stack up with the rest of the more veteran cast members who have had more experience in front of the camera. Part of the problem is that some of the emotions she tries to show are the exact opposite of what she is trying to portray for the situations she is in. Yaphet Kotto as Parker sticks out the most as the smart ass engineer who always has something to complain about no matter how trivial it may be. His character also adds what humor there is in the script due to his bad attitude which helps lighten the almost complete somberness of the film. The most level headed of the characters in the movie was Dallas, who was played by Tom Skerritt. After his on screen death it almost seems as if controlled chaos takes over on the ship. One thing that sticks out the most with the actors is that their characters seem to not like each other and they cannot wait to be done with their mission as any real person would be as they are doing a job and just want to be done with it. The reason for this is that no one really liked each other in the cast and crew and that translated onto the screen, which just made the characters seem more real and believable.

     While the film has a deliberate pace, it does drag in spots. It's not always a bad thing for this to happen in films, it's this one slight that is the most detrimental to Alien. I will probably get some disagreement on this but it is true. There are scenes where nothing is happening except shots on the crew milling about and doing there own thing. The good thing about these scenes is that it helps to establish the crew and their personalities as each one is their person. Even Ash who we find out later is an android is shown doing very human things and having quirks about him. It's the little things like this that help establish the world we are invited into for over two hours. While the film didn't really do anything new as it used pre-existing staples from movies, what it did do is use what was around to create it's own place in the film world and create a new film genre.  It also created as whole universe for people to play in as if Alien was a sandbox movie and a launching ground for others to go crazy in. Alien as a film is starting to show it's age but it's that age that makes the film hold up today still. There are no quick cuts, the shots are set and the scenes are let out to play the way they should. As natural as possible. Another interesting thing about the film to me is that it can be put into the Mythos category of films. That is the alien is really of unknown origins and that it  can be seen as having been asleep for a long time and as guardians for something unknown but at the same time something that feels old and is unexplainable. Alien is almost a perfect film and still stands out above almost all films made today.

BEST DEATH:
     Kane's final meal surprise.

BEST LINES:
     Ripley, for God's sake, this is the first time that we've encountered a species like this. It has to go back. All sorts of tests have to be made.
     Ash, are you kidding? This thing bled acid. Who knows what it's gonna do when it's dead?
     I think it's safe to assume it isn't a zombie.

FUN FACTS:
     The blue laser lights that were used in the alien ship's egg chamber were borrowed from the band The Who, who were testing out the lasers for their stage show in the soundstage next door.

     The space jockey prop was 26 feet tall.

     The original cut of the film ran 3 hours and 12 minutes.

     In a preview of the bonus feature menus for the "Alien Legacy" box set posted to USENET, the bio for Dallas had him as being born female and Lambert as being born male, suggesting gender reassignment before the events in the film. Negative fan reaction prompted this to be changed before production of the DVDs.

     The rumor that the cast, except for John Hurt, did not know what would happen during the chestburster scene is partly true. The scene had been explained for them, but they did not know specifics such as real animal innards were being used. For instance, Veronica Cartwright did not expect to be sprayed with blood. This was done to help the actors show true revolt and fear.

THE NEXT PROMETHEUS VIRAL

     Here we are about two months out from the release of Prometheus and small bits of the behind the scenes in that universe is being released, which while staying away from spoilers, I watch every single one.

     The newest one was just releases today and it's kinda creepy, yet just adds to the alien universe that has been established  already and adds more layers to it.

     This time it's the full Weyland Industries David video which we got to see a snippet of in the last viral video.

     Enjoy!

NEW LOOKS

     As I've said before in previous posts (two so far I think, making this a third time), The one movie I'm looking forward to this year the most is Prometheus. Since everyone is posting the new trailer, or the Space Jockey, I've decided to post just two pics from it.  Possible spoilers below........You have been warned!

If that isn't a Xenomorph, I don't know what is:

And the last picture I'll post shows what looks like is a hybrid.