Prometheus

An archaeological find leads a team of explorers to follow clues left over the course of human existence to the possible origins of the human race. The quest leads them to the far reaches of the universe to find the answers to questions that plague mankind. However, all they find are more questions, and a threat to themselves and possibly to Earth itself.

Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw
Michael Fassbender as David
Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland
Idris Elba as Captain Janek
Logan Marshall-Green as Charlie Holloway
Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers
Rafe Spall as Milburn
Sean Harris as Fifield

Directed by Ridley Scott

Who will like this movie

If you are a fan of Sci-Fi visual effects, this movie has some great, stunning scenes to look at. This is certainly something you have to pay attention to, as there are many things that are left for either your own interpretation, or for future sequels. Fans of the "Alien" movies will recognize certain aspects and tie ins to the original "Alien" movie, however they may be disappointed in what direction it is taken to.

Phantom Thoughts

It has taken me a few days to create this blog because I just have so many questions and different thoughts about this movie, that I needed time to get them together properly. Here's what I have come to find out:

Ridley Scott, who did the first "Alien" movie was set to create a prequel to the franchise. He got Jon Spaihts to write a screenplay for this movie. It was finished and set to begin production when, somewhere along the line, Damon Lindelof  was brought in to re-develop the screenplay. This was by far the biggest mistake they made. Lindelof used some kind of mind-numbing agents on Scott and the Fox executives to convince them that they didn't need to make a prequel, they could just do a separate storyline altogether. Then, in a moment of self-gratification, he came up with the brilliant idea that they could do BOTH!

Looking back on the movie with this knowledge, I see that they failed miserably in creating either. It is not a stand-alone Sci-Fi movie because it has too many "Alien" tie-ins and it is not an "Alien" prequel, because they have gone so far off course with that as well. In the interview I saw, Lindelof talks about "Prometheus" as a story that takes place within the same Universe as the "Alien" series, but runs parallel to it. WTF?

See, his problem was that he didn't like what the franchise had become. Where "Alien" was something that was unique and special, some of the sequels that followed lost the soul of the original. OK. I can agree with that. I mean, how do you fuck up such an awesome premise such as "Alien vs. Predator"? Well, they found a way...TWICE!
Lindelof also didn't want to just make a prequel that transitioned right into where the original picked up. He was looking to make 2 sequels to "Prometheus". Poor, brain-washed Ridley Scott stated that "by the end of the third act you start to realize there’s a DNA of the very first Alien, but none of the subsequent [films]".

Sigh. My only hope is that the hallucinogens that Lindelof used on Scott wear off in time that he can somehow guide the next two films into the prequel it SHOULD be. There are way too many holes in the script and questions I have to go into all the things that I found wrong. However, some of the things that I felt they got right were:

The android David. He was brilliantly played by Michael Fassbender and a truly interesting character. (I loved the small detail that on a close-up shot of his finger, the Weyland insignia was put into his fingerprint)

The 3-D. They didn't go for the cheap "here's something in your face" 3-D effects that just makes it look gimmicky. Instead, it was very submersive, where it was used to put you INSIDE the movie, much like they did in "Avatar".

The "Why?". With the viral videos that were released before the film with a young Peter Weyland talking about how he was gonna change the world, and the "commercial" for the David android becoming available from Weyland industries, it starts to set up the back story for the big, bad corporation that becomes part of "Alien" lore. I also like the idea of finding out where we come from as a species, and how they went about putting that possible explanation that we had help from an alien race to become who we are into the plot of the film.

Obviously, this was a major disappointment that left way too many questions to be answered. I understand the "leave them wanting more" school of thinking, but when you leave us feeling confused, it turns into a negative reaction. And you never want that to be what your audience walks away with.

Until next time, see you in the center seat.


11/12/12
UPDATE:

The original Jon Spaihts screenplay has been leaked. I have read it and will say that although it is not as impressive as I would have liked, at least I was not confused and was an actual true PREQUEL to the original Alien movie. If you would like to decide for yourself, you can read it here:

http://www.prometheusforum.net/Alien-Engineers.pdf

Dark Shadows

   
Based on the daytime gothic soap opera that ran from 1966 to 1971, Dark Shadows is about a family who moves from Liverpool, England to Maine in 1760 to build a fishing empire. They become so successful that a town is named after them (Collinsport), and the youngest son, Barnabas Collins, grows up to be a wealthy playboy. He has an affair with one of the servant girls, Angelique Bouchard, but breaks her heart when he falls in love with another girl, Josette du Pres. Turns out that Angelique is a witch and her rejection is answered with a curse that causes the death of Barnabus' parents as well as his lover Josette and turns him into a vampire. She then turns the townspeople against him and has him buried "alive" in a coffin.
    That coffin is unintentionally dug up nearly 200 years later and Barnabas goes about restoring the family name and grandeur that has fallen from what he once knew. He struggles with the ways of the world in modern times as well as dealing with Angelique, who is still around and plans to keep him and his family in ruin at all costs.

Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins
Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the family matriarch
Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, the family's live-in psychiatrist
Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard
Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis, the manor's caretaker.
Jonny Lee Miller as Roger Collins, Elizabeth's "ne'er-do-well" brother
Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winters, David's governess and Barnabas' love interest. Heathcote also plays the role of Josette du Pres; Victoria and Maggie Evans' roles, separate in the series, were combined in the film.
Chloë Grace Moretz as Carolyn Stoddard, Elizabeth's rebellious teenage daughter.
Gulliver McGrath as David Collins, Roger's "precocious" 10-year-old son

Who will like this movie

Because the original series was done in a soap opera style format, it is difficult to translate that into a film. However, I think that fans of the TV show will find things to enjoy about the movie, especially cameos by original cast members; Jonathan Frid, Lara Parker, David Selby and Kathryn Leigh Scott making appearances as party guests during a ball held at Collinwood Manor. This is a "take your brain and put it in the cup holder" type of movie that will be appreciated for those just wanting to be entertained for a while. Fans of Tim Burton will surely see his influence, while not being a classic "Burton-esque" style movie. This is less "Nightmare before Christmas" and more "Sleepy Hollow" in his approach. Speaking of which, this is the 8th time that Tim Burton has teamed up with Johnny Depp.
There are a few amusing moments in Barnabas trying to understand the time he is now in that is reminiscent of the first "Austin Powers" movie.

Phantom Thoughts

I have to admit, I have not seen any of the original series to compare it to. Nevertheless, this is a cult classic that most Sci-Fi/Fantasy fans all know. In 2004 and 2007, Dark Shadows was ranked #19 and #23 respectively on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever, so I do know a little about it. There are those who say that it is a parody of the original or that they did not do the series justice. But in watching this myself, I can see some soap opera type elements, just enough in fact, to pay homage to the original Dark Shadows. I found it kinda funny that it was set in the year 1972, especially since Dark Shadows ended in 1971.  I believe it is what it is, which could be a rental or on-demand viewing, but was a decent movie that I liked. It was visually well done, as is all Tim Burton's movies, and the plot was well put together. Simple and true with not a whole lot of twists and turns to blow your mind out. This is the type of movie that I'd watch some evening in the Fall, when there is nothing else worth watching on TV. Johnny Depp plays the character very well (maybe a bit over the top at times). There was one scene or two that his make-up looked like it was done with an airbrush about 5 minutes before he walked on the set, but for me...that just lent itself to the campy, soap opera type show this was based on in the first place. 

Until next time, see you in the center seat.

Stay until the end of the credits

      Anyone who has had the pleasure of going to the movies with me knows two things: I don't share my popcorn and I always stay until the very end of the credits to every movie I watch. The popcorn thing is more for their safety, as I tend to put enough butter and salt on mine to kill a small pachyderm. The credits thing, on the other hand, is a bit more complex. There are three reasons why I do this, and why you should too.

1) You get what you pay for
     The price of movie tickets has gone up quite a bit since I started going to and paying for them myself. And with the boom of 3-D movies, Imax movies, 3-D Imax movies...the prices get a bit outrageous. So my thought on this is, if I'm paying these prices, I'm gonna watch the ENTIRE movie. Other people may have to scooch by and wonder why I'm still sitting there. Theater ushers come in to clean up and give me dirty looks because now they have to wait for me to leave to clean that row. I don't care. I paid for it, I'm entitled to be there.

2) Respect for the movie makers
     There was a time when you could read every name and what all the different jobs were in making a movie. Hell, they used to have the credits at the BEGINNING of the movie a few decades ago. So many people are now involved in creating this medium that it is nearly impossible to read each one, unless you happen to be a speed reader. I am not. But this does not stop me from scanning the names and jobs of the people who brought what I just watched to the screen. Sometimes you come across a funny name or one familiar to someone you know. Some of the titles are amusing and interesting also. I once saw "Bee Wrangler" as a credit. I have learned what a "Gaffer" is because I always see that credit rolling by and had to research it. (It's a term for an electrician or Head Electrician, in case you were wondering)
Every one of those people scrolling by had a part to play, and I like to give them the respect of acknowledging that name is there, even if it goes by too fast to read it.

3) More Movie at the end!

     Here's the one that maybe you can relate to the most. Sometimes, there is more movie at the end of the credits! I first ran into this at the end of the original "Lethal Weapon", where at the end of the credits, there is an entire building that is blown up from another bomb threat that Riggs and Murtaugh are called in to investigate. I thought that was the greatest thing ever. There are a lot of movies that do this, some have links to sequels, such as the Marvel movies. Some are one minute clips that can be funny or interesting as a part of the movie, such as the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Others are even a few minutes long as part of a wrap up of the plot. I recently wrote about this when I saw "Battleship" not too long ago. I was the only one left in the theater while a 5 minute conclusion and sequel starter played at the end of the credits. I also told many of you to stay until the end of the "Avengers" movie, and some of you didn't listen and were faked out by the "tease". A few minutes into the credits, there was a sequel scene thrown in that most of you saw. However, at the very end of the credits was what, in my mind, was the greatest end of the credits scene I have ever seen. It took a lot to knock off the original that I experienced all those years ago in a darkened screening of "Lethal Weapon", but kudos Marvel...you accomplished it.

Until next time, see you in the center seat....until the movie is completely over.