Prometheus

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I've been quite excited about seeing this film since I first heard about it.  Consequently, I went to the early evening show tonight with high hopes, even though friends had told me the reviews were not generally good.

I left the theater with decidedly mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I had a good time.  Prometheus is great fun, well-paced, and visually stunning.  I was never bored, and each frame of the film was lovely to behold.  The actors also generally delivered good performances.  Noomi Rapace continues to grab your attention each time she's on screen, Charlize Theron did the best she could with a caricature of a character, and Idris Elba was, as always, wonderful despite his very small role.  The best performance in the film by far, though, was Michael Fassbender's portrayal of a very fussy android. 

On the other hand, at no point during or after the movie could I allow myself to think, or the entire thing would begin to fall apart.  We're spending a trillion dollars on a two-year space mission, so of course we will pick so-so experts in each field and never think at all about how compatible the crew will be.  We're scientists in an alien atmosphere, so of course the moment the carbon dioxide level looks tolerable, we'll take off our helmets; we're not the sort to worry about airborne contagions.  We'll then take off our gloves and use our bare fingers to touch everything that squirms.  And on and on.  At no point can you allow yourself to think what this mission would actually be like.

Despite all those flaws, though, as I noted above I left the film happy to have seen it.  If you are willing to suspend not only your disbelief but also all sense of reason and logic, definitely check out Prometheus.  If, however, you can't enjoy a nonsensical movie, give it a pass.