Prometheus – worth the hype and wait?

 

I'll be honest, I'm an Alien fan. A huge fan, in fact. I'm especially fond of the second film in the original canon, Aliens (possibly the most perfectly made commercial film of all time...?). So, I was one of the many hordes of Alien-ites who were suckered in to the anticipation of the prequel-ish Prometheus.

 

So, I booked my tickets for opening night and spent the rest of the week bouncing up-and-down like a kid who’s just found out that he’s going to Alton Towers at the same time as desperately needing a wee! And was it worth being this excited?...frankly, no!

Ridley Scott is still the finest visual director in the business. This film is proof of this, as there’s no doubting how beautifully shot the whole piece is. However, it’s no disguise for a weak story and bad script, which in my opinion has let this film down.

Should I be surprised? Probably not…this is a common occurrence in the Hollywood machine. High-concept films are churned out regularly and survive mainly off their hype, but it doesn’t have to be that way…

Look at The Avengers/Avengers Assemble for example. Same build up. Same expectations. But the film delivered on so many other levels. In fact, I think it’s shown the rest of the commercial movie business up, proving that even though a brand is strong enough to carry a film you can still make an entertaining ensemble movie that merits multiple watches.

So, in wake of this disappointment, mirrored off so many other let-downs, how does everyone else feel about the way the industry drives this? Should more thought and consideration be expected of films of this magnitude? Are we quite happy to let the movie big-guns sweep the cinematic realm so we can expect better material in the smaller films we sometimes crave? Was The Avengers just a one-off? Can we expect every huge promotion to deliver a Hulk smash? I’ll leave it to you to comment…

LET THE WHINGING COMMENCE!