Prometheus - Review So I’ve just seen Prometheus, and I am disappoint! No Spoilers TV’s Michael Fassbender gives the standout performance as the is-he-isn’t-he evil robot David. It’s exhilarating, scary, gory, and the design (with one exception - more later) and VFX are exquisite. hats of to my friends at MPC & everyone else who was involved at the other facilities. But the script, by some guy and LOST’s I-have-a-huge-amount-of-time-for Damian Lindaloft leads a lot to be desired and lets it all down a bit. Sorry. Spoilers from here No really, stop reading unless you’ve seen it. The main thing is that it’s waaay too on the nose. ‘Look, you have a part of the ship with its own life support, for later in the film!’ and ‘Wow, a Plothammer 4000 medical couch for later in the film!’ Yes you have set stuff up. But ideally you hide it in a piece of business, not just stand there doing it. Characters are stupid. The one person who can’t get lost (the guy doing the mapping) gets lost because he’s needed to by the story. People take there helmets off, because there is breathable air, and keep them off, even when they know that there is alien biological activity, and that their presence is affecting it. Having one hothead to it for the plot is fine. Let that decision come back to bite him! But have everyone do it? Sorry, no. Talking of the crew, they have an underlying problem. In Alien, they are unprofessional, rough, ready, space truckers. There are thousands like them, this is just a space McJob so it fits. However in this film they are a crack team put together by the world’s richest man for a mission that may impact all mankind; yet they’re still (mostly) all space truckers. Feels very wrong. Plus they (i.e. we) all get briefed together coz they don’t know why they’re there. Again, lazy exposition. Weyland being on board & Charlize being his daughter were just non-events. Keeping Weyland a secret served little purpose, so the relelation he was onboard did likewise. And Charlize being is daughter we pretty obvious from the moment they met… Sure, these were both new peiices of information, but they didn’t surprise anyone, but acted as if they should be. And lastly (for now) any film with a mutant baby in is crap. It’s such a cheap shot. Please. Oh yeah — my problem with the design; not enough Giger. The Space Jockeys (okay… Engineers) looked awesome, as did their spacecraft. Everything I could have hoped for. A great extension of the Giger aesthetic (although if they are just suits, it makes little sense that that aesthetic would ever appear in a future creature’s genetic makeup…) However none of the other creatures looked like they come from anywhere near the same ballpark. The proto face-hugger just looked like a standard squid (it’s mouthparts when we see them were very impressive though). The proto-Alien at the end of the film looked strange & kinda beaky. It’s pointy head annoyed me too. But mainly it didn’t have a single Gigerism in it anywhere. I just wish it looked like it came form the same part of the universe, that’s all. Just a hint of the holes or cables or other features he fills his creatures with. Just so it looked like a distant cousin.
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Prometheus - Review

So I’ve just seen Prometheus, and I am disappoint!

No Spoilers

TV’s Michael Fassbender gives the standout performance as the is-he-isn’t-he evil robot David. It’s exhilarating, scary, gory, and the design (with one exception - more later) and VFX are exquisite. hats of to my friends at MPC & everyone else who was involved at the other facilities.

But the script, by some guy and LOST’s I-have-a-huge-amount-of-time-for Damian Lindaloft leads a lot to be desired and lets it all down a bit.

Sorry.

Spoilers from here

No really, stop reading unless you’ve seen it.

The main thing is that it’s waaay too on the nose. ‘Look, you have a part of the ship with its own life support, for later in the film!’ and ‘Wow, a Plothammer 4000 medical couch for later in the film!’ Yes you have set stuff up. But ideally you hide it in a piece of business, not just stand there doing it.

Characters are stupid. The one person who can’t get lost (the guy doing the mapping) gets lost because he’s needed to by the story.

People take there helmets off, because there is breathable air, and keep them off, even when they know that there is alien biological activity, and that their presence is affecting it. Having one hothead to it for the plot is fine. Let that decision come back to bite him! But have everyone do it? Sorry, no.

Talking of the crew, they have an underlying problem. In Alien, they are unprofessional, rough, ready, space truckers. There are thousands like them, this is just a space McJob so it fits. However in this film they are a crack team put together by the world’s richest man for a mission that may impact all mankind; yet they’re still (mostly) all space truckers. Feels very wrong. Plus they (i.e. we) all get briefed together coz they don’t know why they’re there. Again, lazy exposition.

Weyland being on board & Charlize being his daughter were just non-events. Keeping Weyland a secret served little purpose, so the relelation he was onboard did likewise. And Charlize being is daughter we pretty obvious from the moment they met… Sure, these were both new peiices of information, but they didn’t surprise anyone, but acted as if they should be.

And lastly (for now) any film with a mutant baby in is crap. It’s such a cheap shot. Please.

Oh yeah — my problem with the design; not enough Giger. The Space Jockeys (okay… Engineers) looked awesome, as did their spacecraft. Everything I could have hoped for. A great extension of the Giger aesthetic (although if they are just suits, it makes little sense that that aesthetic would ever appear in a future creature’s genetic makeup…) However none of the other creatures looked like they come from anywhere near the same ballpark. The proto face-hugger just looked like a standard squid (it’s mouthparts when we see them were very impressive though). The proto-Alien at the end of the film looked strange & kinda beaky. It’s pointy head annoyed me too. But mainly it didn’t have a single Gigerism in it anywhere. I just wish it looked like it came form the same part of the universe, that’s all. Just a hint of the holes or cables or other features he fills his creatures with. Just so it looked like a distant cousin.

John Carter - 50’s Trailer

This is awesome…

Les Miserables - Trailer

Trying to get on this next at work.

Source: animal.discovery.com

Source: animal.discovery.com

Source: animal.discovery.com

Source: animal.discovery.com

Digital Domain Vray in Real Steel

From the director of Brick.

Awesome Total Recall trailer - You can finally see what I’ve been doing the last few months!

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Amazing short film shot at Chernobyl.

Utterly astounding work form ILM on Transformers 3

Fast Five

I know, you’ve been waiting patiently as I have for The Scorpion King himself, Dwayne Johnson, to join the cast of The Fast and the Furious franchise.

For some reason (perhaps the others were crap?) this film when stratospheric where the others were merely mildly successful car-based romps. I’ve seen the first (perfectly enjoyable) third (same director as this one, enjoyable) but would never have bothered with this one without the same master-stroke that had viewers worldwide flocking to cinemas.

Say it with me: The Rock.

Yes, The Rock makes this picture. Vin Diesel and the white cop nobody cares about need a strong antagonist at this point in the franchise. Dwayne delivers. The evil drug lord Mexican baddie from Desperado hardly even gets a look in, despite being the primary antagonist.

The plot is basically Oceans Eleven with cars, and if you’re gonna steal, I can’t think of many better templates. It’s well shot, the action is well directed, there’s plenty of the genre’s required testosterone, and although IIRC there is less examples of impressive driving it’s still very good. Everyone gets their fair share of good lines.

The VFX are fine but obviously done by second-tier houses (MPC Vancouver and a bunch of places I’ve never heard of), unlike the Rolls Royce of VFX delivered for the fourth instalment (cough cough) but I think the was the right call. They are still very good and the producers were wise to spend their money in the car-action rather than the CGI - the target audience won’t see what I see but know their motoring far better than I.

So yeah, if it appeals, check it out. It’s a well put-together flick.