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| Michael Fassbender as David the android |
So I got to see Ridley Scott's pseudo-prequel Prometheus today. Yes, it's a visually impressive spectacle as everyone else is saying. It even manages to deliver some genuine thrills and chills. And the cast is generally strong, especially Michael Fassbender playing a scheming android channeling his inner Peter O'Toole. But the movie betrays its horror story roots, which means that some characters have to act like nincompoops for the sake of moving the plot forward. What this means is an entire crew of supposedly qualified scientists forgetting their years of training and making incompetent decisions. Some individual motivations remain maddeningly inconsistent. And then there's the weak philosophical pretense embodied by a pair of archaeologists who quickly abandon measured skepticism for New Age gobbledygook and a specious quest for the meaning of life. Boy, Scott sure did set them up for the ultimate letdown (and a possible sequel). So how'd the meeting with your Maker go, suckas?
But this is ultimately a work of great visual beauty. And for sheer poetry, no other scene in Prometheus equals its prologue...
