Prometheus

Isaac Asimov might be turning in his grave right now!!!!!!!!

How could any robot not follow the three laws! But of course in Prometheus we have an android by the name David who is wily and shrewd, cold and unconscionable; it seems that he has a heart of his own when he wishes his creator to be dead. You might have noticed I used ‘he’ for the android, when it should be more perfectly ‘it’. But of course in a movie with a bunch of strange but extremely likeable machismo aliens playing God, human beings giving birth to giant squid like creatures and this event takes place in a time-span of less than two days right from impregnation to taking it out of the womb and a cold & ruthless commander who does nothing as she watches her team mates die.

Well, this is Prometheus for you. But what it lacks in story, it more than makes up in its larger than life mosaics of delightful and mind-boggling graphics of nature at its best and the super uber cool gadgets. It is indeed a visual treat to the eye.

Right from the scene 1- when we come face to face with an imagery of what might have been a primordial Earth (simply stunning effects!!!)- an alien sacrifices himself so that human civilization could evolve till the very end when a woman is surrounded by a desolate and a dead planet many million kilometers away from the safety of home.

I don’t know about Ridley Scott’s Alien, but I know that James Cameron’s Aliens followed after that movie- which I had the good fortune to watch. So inspite of ample amount of blood and gore in Prometheus, it lacks a Sigourney Weaver to bash up ugly aliens.

Instead we have a more docile version of her as a one Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), who actually connected all the dots from all the cave paintings across the Earth, and based on her (and her boyfriend’s) conjecture, Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) gets almost instantly ready to churn out a trillion dollars for a venture across infinity.

Here, I must mention- the technology depicted in this movie is par excellence. Right from the ship, to those small balls of light which mapped the entire cave area to the Automatic machine that can perform all type of operations, including a Cesarean, awe struck me.

But the story was rather disappointing and the star cast wasn’t properly utilized. Except Noomi (as Elizabeth Shaw) and Michael (as the android David) no one comes across as a strong character to make their mark. Without quite explaining, with her boyfriend infected (that’s why I called that android unconscionable!!!), a squid like creature takes birth from Elizabeth’s belly. Then suddenly, every one forgets about it. Just a few hours ago, Charlize Theron as the commander of the ship didn’t let the boyfriend in the ship on account of his being infected and set him on fire. But she wasn’t much concerned about a squid growing to gigantic proportions inside her very sick bay and instead is seen fighting with her dad Peter Weyland (who actually wasn’t long dead!!).

The Gods, from whom, we are created, with whom our DNAs match, are extremely fickle minded and they now want us dead. So they had prepared a ship of death heading straightaway to Earth, meant for its destruction, but somehow unwittingly, they became the victim of their own creation. But of course, one God survives. With rest of his compatriots dead, this one is seen hibernating inside the control ship which is destined towards Earth…….

But this is not to say that I am asking you not to watch this movie. Watch it by all means. But don’t watch it for the story- it’s a no brainer. Watch it for the very, very amazing special effects and a chancy, suave and reticent android named David.

And don’t be bogged down by my rather critical review, because inspite of all its faults, the effects are simply stunning for you to miss out this movie…

(P.S. – But the end was rather stupid, what say?)

 

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• Prometheus – Movie Review (news.softpedia.com)