Review No.95: Prometheus

So one of the biggest releases of the year deserves a cinema where I won't be bothered by people munching on nachos or updating Facebook every five seconds luckily the great Lighthouse in Wolverhampton offered that possibility screening Ridley Scott's Prometheus on the week of release. As most people are aware Prometheus was in some ways a prequel to Scott's original Alien film and in particular answer the space jockey question that a lot of people had. The film is mostly set on-board the Prometheus, a scientific vessel which has been funded by the Weyland Corporation in order for two archaeologists to follow a star map they found in a cave ten years previous. As well as archeaologist couple Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway on board Prometheus are among others the android David, gung-ho captain Janek and Meredith Vickers a representative of the Weyland Corporation who seemingly has another agenda in visiting the planet. Once reaching the moon LV-223 the crew hope to find the aliens known as 'engineers' in order to get answers about the map and indeed to find some evidence. Obviously anybody who has seen the trailer knows that things don't really work out for everybody on board Prometheus, this is a Ridley Scott sci-fi film after all, though I do realise that most have yet to see this film so I'm not going to go into any more plot detail than that.

Among those also seeing Prometheus with me were a group of friends that I know from the film quiz that is held at the Light House once a month with one of them having already seen the earlier screening. After the film she asked me for my verdict and I personally was still in a state of shock she told me to give it about fifteen minutes before I made my mind up about it and after a discussion we thought that the first two thirds of the film were sufficiently well-paced however everything went barmy in Prometheus' final section. My feeling was what made the first Alien film work so well was that feeling of despair and isolation which was coupled with the paranoia that built up as the crew-members started to die off. This is certainly present when we first see Prometheus as David wanders around the ship on his own waiting to release the crew members from their state of statis as he watches their dreams and learns to speak different languages in order to converse with the engineers. Scott does build up the intensity when the crew first make it onto LV-223 and as the origins of the species become better known there are some interesting questions to be asked as well as fantastically jumpy scene involving an autopsy. My feeling is though that people expect more from their sci-fi films now than they did in 1979 so there has to be some shoot-outs and some space ship crashing to satisfy action fans and indeed the trailer that debuted a while back is full of footage from the final stages of Prometheus. I think I would've been happier to see a film that relied more on horror built on paranoia than loud gun battles later on. Another problem I had was that sometimes I felt the film was fairly clinical and scientific while I'm aware that this is sometimes necessary in a film about scientists this meant from time I felt removed from some of the conversations that the characters were having.

There are also far too many characters to get to know that well however there's no faulting the performances from the main players each of whom has something to offer. Among those who discussed the film afterwards we all agreed that Michael Fassbender is excellent in everything and as David here you really believe that he isn't of this world. He is able to make David seem both pleasant and later creepy he claims to be there to help the crew but we never know the mission he has been programmed for so that makes him certainly the most interesting character. Noomi Rapace is also predictably excellent her Dr Shaw does really look like a scientist and with her tomboy like looks combined with her scruffy hair she does at times conjour up memories of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley. Rapace's stature also counter-acts that of Charlize Theron who as Vickers is practically Amazonian when compared to her she here gives off her best Ice Maiden impression as the character motivated by money at times being so cold that Janek questions if she is also a robot. As Janek, Idris Elba is responsible for the humour of the film more of an army than everything else he keeps his crew going with quips but also makes sure that he is responsible for all on board his ship. Guy Pearce also impresses as Weyland although the prosthetics given to him to make him look like a very old man seemed to be to be not that impressive especially given that this is a big budget movie.

Unlike a lot of other science fiction films Scott is keen to explore various themes most notably being that of faith represented mostly by Shaw, the most religious character in the film, who carries a crucifix pendant around her neck her constant belief questioned by her partner Holloway especially seeing as she can't have children. Her pendant is a symbol of her belief so the moment it is taken away from her she experiences some of the most traumatic events of the film as a whole. The other theme which is most prominent is that of big business and the fact that money can buy you anything you want even if you have to manipulate other people to get that. This is seen in the character of Vickers who believes her money sees her as superior than everyone else on Prometheus while Weyland's motives also demonstrate the power that money can buy you. Scott's film isn't perfect by any means, especially when he decides to crank everything up to eleven, however there are underlying themes behind the action which is something that I rarely see in science fiction films these days. While not a great film Prometheus is certainly one of the better big budget films of recent years and I would recommend everybody go to see it at the cinema so they can make their own minds up about it.

Verdict: Two thirds of a brilliant film are spoilt by a completely bonkers final chapter but despite this Prometheus boasts great performances from its ensemble cast and underlying themes to the action so overall I will give it a very deserving 7.5/10

Review No.92: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Back when I was reviewing Underworld: Awakening last month I decided that I needed to go get some backstory and watch the first two films that preceded Awakening chronologically. I realised that this was a futile endeavour as the past storylines were explained at the start of the film so when I watched the sequel to the 2007 film Ghost Rider I didn't watch the original. This was the right decision as at the start Nic Cage's Johnny Blaze explains that he was a stuntman who decided to sell his soul to the devil which I'm assuming is the only thing you really needed to know about that film. The second film starts with Idris Elba's Moureau convincing a bunch of monks with scribbles on their faces that they needed to utilise the rider in order to protect a little boy who was staying with them. This boy turned out to be  Danny the spawn of Ciarin Hinds' devil character who had made a deal with his mother Nadya that she would carry his child coincidentally his main hitman was a former flame of Nadya's. After convincing Blaze that he had to bring the Rider character back he almost destroys Nadya because of her past crimes however he is able to get the boy back albeit briefly. When the boy is back Moureau's deal with Blaze, that he would lift the Ghost Rider curse, was fulfilled meaning that he was fully human but wouldn't you just know it that the devil had once again sent his cronies lead by the fiendish Blackout to finish off the job. So as you would expect the final twenty minutes of the film are filled with gunshots, car chases and Nic Cage's head on fire.

Though the first Ghost Rider film was generally critically derided there was hope for this sequel due to the fact that it was directed by Neveldine/Taylor who responsible for the very entertaining Crank films. There are some moments of visual flourish which hint to their past films such as the sequence in which Blaze is finally able to cast off the Ghost Rider curse. There was also quite a fun performance from Idris Elba who seemed to be trying to make the most of a thankless role in Moureau whose job it was to spout a lot of expositional dialogue. Generally though I found this film boring and that has a lot to do with Cage's lifeless central performance possibly due to the fact the directing team are used to dealing with action stars such as Statham who are able to handle their direction better. I am a Cage fan however it is usually when he has strong direction, such as from the Coens or Ridley Scott, that he has produced his best work while here he seemed that he had just shown up to collect  a paycheck. The annoying actor playing Danny was fairly annoying and the actress playing his mother didn't really add anything to the film basically I didn't care about either of their fates. It's a shame as I feel that there was originally a good film in there however Cage's performance really dragged it down and I feel if there was a way to get another actor to play the role of Blaze Neveldine/Taylor should've done so in other words I'm glad that I didn't watch the original film to see Cage sleepwalk his way through two movies.

Verdict: Elba's performance coupled with occasional visual flare means this film isn't completely worthless however with a bunch of characters it is hard to care about and some sloppy direction I can only give this 4/10