Prometheus: Who’s Your Daddy?

It’s a Big Summer Blockbuster, people! It’s a prequel to Alien! And it asks the most fundamental philosophical questions known to man: who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here?

As a result, one cannot discuss a film like Ridley Scott’s Prometheus alone — so once again I sit down with blogger extraordinaire JustMeMike of The Arts. Beginning last spring, we’ve discussed a number of films in-depth beginning with White Material, Miral, Larry Crowne, David Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Whistleblower, and The Hunger Games.

To recap the film’s plot setup: it follows archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) who discover a series of primitive cave paintings and ancient art portraying early humans flanked by giant figures who point to a specific star configuration in the heavens. Believing this to be a star map, and believing further that those giant figures represent aliens who may be the creators of humankind, Shaw and Holloway set off with a scientific team on the starship Prometheus, funded by the Weyland Corporations, for the outer reaches of space to locate the aliens (whom they term “The Engineers”). The plan: to get those fundamental questions answered.

The ship is staffed with what, to Alien fans, will be a familiar group: the creepy robot David (Michael Fassbender); Meredith Vickers, the forbidding head of the expedition who’s got secrets (Charlize Theron); Janek, the ship’s captain qua cowboy (Idris Elba); and a ragtag/ unpredictable group of other crew and scientists whose motives remain to be uncovered. When they land and find a planet seemingly empty of creatures, they begin to explore an enormous ancient building complex … only to discover that perhaps it’s not empty after all.

In classical myth, the god Prometheus created man out of clay, and later gave him the technology of fire after stealing it from the other gods. Will the latter-day crew of the Prometheus find a similarly benevolent race of creators? Or will they meet a nightmarish fate similar to that in the Greek myth: punished by being chained to a rock, destined to have his liver eaten by an eagle every day, only to have the liver grow back overnight?

More important: if this is a prequel to Alien, how exactly will it set the stage?

Here’s my prediction: wherever Ridley Scott decides to take us, it’ll probably be interesting.

We’ve decided to start with general conversation about the film and only about midway, when we’ll warn you when you need to stop if spoilers are not to your liking.

JustMeMike: Watching Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley race against time, as well as the implacable killing machine/ alien, was a searing, visceral experience. So I brought that thought with me to a packed theater and settled in to watch Prometheus. Before we break down the film, what were your thoughts as you settled into your seat?

Didion: I’ve been trying to keep myself ignorant of films before going in, so that I have fewer expectations — you know how high expectations can ruin your experience of a film. But it was hard to escape the enticing notion of an Alien prequel, not to mention that the script was co-written by Damon Lindelof, one of the co-creators of the TV series Lost.

So I have to say, I enjoyed this movie! On the whole I walked out thinking it was worth the $11 to see this super-duper spectacle on the big screen, especially for the creepy anticipation and the horror elements. How about you, Mike: if someone trapped you in a corner at a cocktail party and asked, “Should I see Prometheus?” what would you say?

Hunger

Watching Director Steve McQueen’s efforts in his directorial debut put a lot on our plates as film viewers. The film is called Hunger and it stars Michael Fassbender as a prisoner in the Maze Prison, which has also been called Long Kesh, near Belfast, Northern Ireland. The other star is Liam Cunningham as a Catholic priest.

The film doesn’t go down easy. In the first third of the film there’s plenty of silence. In short we are shown rather than told. In this segment there are two chief characters, the first is Raymond Lohan played by Stuart Graham. He says next to nothing. We watch as he tends to his hands which have bruised knuckles. He dresses, eats breakfast, and before he leaves for work, he gets down on the ground looking beneath his car. We will come to find that he is depressed about his job, and we will learn why his knuckles are bruised.

The other character is Davey Gillen played by Brian Milligan. As we meet him he’s just about to begin his six-year sentence in the prison. After he refuses to wear a prison uniform, he is marked down as non-cooperative. He wants to wear his own clothes. Instead, after stripping down, he is issued a blanket, and led off to his cell. There he finds he is to live in conditions that would have to seriously improve just to get to deplorable. But things won’t improve.

His situation is shocking, so shocking, that I wasn’t sure that I wanted to finish the film. On the other hand we get to find out why Raymond Lohan is depressed. He is not a prisoner but we will come to learn that his situation is just as hellish as those incarcerated. The main difference is that he sleeps at home, and is a free man.

In the second part of the film, we will meet a prisoner, Bobby Sands, played by Michael Fassbender, and a priest, Father Dominic Moran portrayed by Liam Cunningham. If Bobby Sands sounds familiar to you, that is because he was real and he died in prison after a hunger strike which last 66 days. Sands and Father Moran will have a talk.

Bobby Sands: I’m starting a hunger strike on the first of March.

Father Moran: You‘re going head to head with a British government that is unshakeable.

This talk is about 20 minutes in length and most of it is without camera movement. Director McQueen has set them up at a table in a visitor’s room. There Sands and Moran will discuss the proposed Hunger Strike. Sands is not going to be deterred by the priest. The priest will play every philosophical card in his possession to no avail. McQueen gives us a static two shot. It is two men talking and smoking. They shift in their chairs, the smoke curls, matches are struck as they debate. The arguments are persuasive – from either perspective. It’s not always easy to understand everything they say – but from the purely cinematic style employed, you will be sure that you’ve never ever seen anything like this before.

Haywire

For regular folks like you and me, when your employer decides to downsize, or decides that he wants someone other than you on his payroll, you get your walking papers, which are also known as the pink slip. Generally the following message is delivered: We are sorry – your services are no longer necessary or required.

In the world of government trained or hired contract operatives otherwise known as assassins – things work a tad differently. You don’t get called to take an asap meeting in HR, nor do you sit down with a person hired to fire you a la George Clooney in Up in the Air. No, in this world, you get, as Noah Vosen said in The Bourne Ultimatum, the sharp end of the stick.

Vosen also said – “Issue a standing kill order on Jason Bourne, effective immediately”. He later went on to add, “All agents have shoot-on-sight authorization.“

That’s how it went for Bourne, only he proved to be not only unwilling, but also the toughest target they ever went after.

So too is Mallory Kane, played by Gina Carano, in the brand new Steven Soderbergh helmed actioner called Haywire which opened today. The references to Bourne are unavoidable. As are references you might want to make about Jolie’s Salt. Similar stories, different year, different stars. Speaking of stars, Soderbergh, as usual, has cast a rather lengthy list of well-known  actors some of whom will be summarily butt-kicked by Ms Carano.

Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton,and Channing Tatum are the male headliners, or nearly the universe of the major male players in this film.

So much for the ‘Who’. Our next question might be ‘What’s it about?’ Aside from the obvious which you can surmise from my intro – that Mallory Kane’s days are numbered – we have missions that aren’t really explained all that thoroughly, motives that aren’t really clear, except when McGregor’s Kenneth says, ‘It’s always about money’.