Prometheus Part-Two: The Plot Holes

So, I had intended to cover both the good and the bad in one post, but got so wrapped up in the Ripley/Shaw debate that I forgot about all the unanswered questions and seemingly illogical plot devices in Prometheus. And so, here is Prometheus Part Two, my nit-picky piece.

As I stated in my previous post, Scott weaves the evolution of the Alien species wonderfully, using details that all but die-hard fans may have forgotten. (Especially those of us who only discovered the series two years ago :P). But there are some details in Prometheus that does not seem to connect to the characters or story and the motivations throughout. I'm not sure I can remember all of the little loose threads that nagged at me while I watched, but there are a few main ones that have stuck.

Spoilers will now follow from here on out. As I'm going further in-depth in this review, I will not be blocking out any of the text. Consider yourself warned.


The first and most prominent loose thread that comes to mind for me is David's exposing Charlie to the Alien substance. When this event occurs, we are already aware there is some unknown ulterior agenda held by Vickars and, likely, David, so it feels safe to assume that David is merely furthering that agenda. However, by the end of the film, it becomes very evident that there is no rational explanation for it. The further agenda was clearly for Mr. Weyland to meet the 'Engineers' and discover if they can prevent him from dying, but Charlie's poisoning does nothing to further this goal that we can reasonably see. They already planned on returning to the dig site, so it wasn't to give himself more time to find these 'Engineers'. It's possible he thought perhaps the substance could be the cure itself, but after seeing what happens to the head they found, I find that doubtful. In an interview with Time, Damon Lindelof, the screenwriter for Prometheus, states that "He’s a strange robot that has a curious crush on a human being,...". So, it is possible that David's motive for poisoning Charlie is one of jealousy, but in the movie alone, I find that a difficult conclusion to draw.

Not so much a prominent thread as a nagging inconsistency; the vessels containing Alien DNA quickly begin to deteriorate and spread all that nasty Alien juice around, leading to the evolution of the species as we know it. Whether this is from being exposed to air or light, or some other factor introduced by the humans, we can't be certain. But something changed in that cavern to begin the process. Something new that only occurred once the humans open/entered it. So why, then, does the same not happen in the Engineer ship seen later in the film? Why are those vessels as solid as ever, when they (theoretically) should have been introduced to the same element that caused the first ones to activate?

And finally, in the opening sequence of the film, we see an Engineer drink a writhing, dark liquid and disintegrate rapidly, not unlike what happens to the dead head the team finds and Charlie when he is poisoned. We have no context for this scene, where he is, or why he's doing it, and those questions never get answered.

There is one positive note I'd like to write about in this post, that I touched on, but hadn't covered in my last one. The scene with Shaw aborting her Alien fetus was an extremely powerful one that kept the viewer tense all throughout, and I was astounded at how realistic it was in terms of her difficulty in running while in so much pain. She was very clearly running on little more than determination and adrenaline. So few films these days are willing to portray their heroes struggling in their grueling, physical pursuits, instead opting to have them perform, difficult, exhausting and impossible feats as though they were taking a stroll around the block. Scott also had to deal with pressure from the ratings system to remove the scene entirely if he wanted to get a PG-13 rating vs an R in the United States (it is 14A here in Canada). Despite the fact that an R rating would result is some loss of money/theater goers, Scott felt the scene was far too important to remove. A director that puts the story ahead of the money? I can get behind that kind of director.

Prometheus: Masterfully done, but dang-nab-it, I wanna know!

As planned, I went to see Ridley Scott's Prometheus last night. I will start by saying that I was not disappointed, though I was rather seething at the end.

In true Scott fashion, the story starts off slow, introducing you to the ship, it's crew, and it's mission. Some themes mimic Scott's first Alien movie. The crew is aboard a commercial vessel, there is some ulterior motive the crew is not being let in on, and they hastily run out and examine the very same moon. However, these are all minor plot devices in the story, and are quickly forgotten in the wake of what follows.

The evolution of the Aliens was masterfully done, developing them in such a way, that you see some resemblance, but they clearly aren't anywhere near what we know them to look like until the very end. Scott uses a detail that I personally had forgotten about to thoughtfully evolve his Alien species: the fact that they evolve by absorbing the DNA of their hosts. I'll admit, I was confused on how these white, long, squishy snake-like creatures were going to become the Aliens we know and love. True, they greatly resembled the Face-Huggers and Chest-Bursters of the first movie, but the further into the movie we get the longer you're spent wondering how and when they would evolve. (Unless, you know, you remembered that whole DNA stealing aspect that I forgot. :P) Then, BAM!, an Alien rips from a body, resembling an early form of the black, elongated skull, four limbed Aliens the franchise is famous for. Masterfully done Mr. Scott, masterfully done. (No sarcasm intended.)

The story's lead heroine, Elizabeth Shaw, is somewhat softer and more feminine than her future counterpart, Ellen Ripley, but no less brave, wise and determined. Some might say even more so, as you get to know her more deeply than Ripley, and get to see both her strengths and her weaknesses. We see her pain when (SPOILER: it is discovered that she cannot conceive children, despite desperately wanting to), and her strength and determination when she (SPOILER: later fights off members of the crew, who try to put her in cryo-stasis, so she can use a medical pod to surgically remove an alien fetus from her body). We see her weakness when (SPOILER: she risks her life to bring aboard an alien specimen by going back for it in a deadly storm), and her strength when (SPOILER: she, for all intents and purposes, sacrifices her own life by demanding the captain take down an alien vessel intent on bring destruction to Earth by blowing up their own ship).

At the end of the film, despite her obvious acceptance that it is the end, and her life will be over in a matter of a few short minutes, when given the choice to give up or fight back, she fights. (SPOILER: And instead of taking the easy route and going back to Earth, she instead chooses to find the 'Engineers' and, assumably, ask them WHY they want to destroy us). And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the part that pissed me off. Not because I didn't like it, not because I think it was the wrong way to go, not because I didn't believe it, but because I. Hate. Cliffhangers.

I know, I know, but it's Ridley Scott! And Aliens! What did you expect? But I got to watch the Alien movies all in a row. I didn't see any of them until 2010, so I never had to deal with any of that. I never had to wait to find out what happens, and I am horrifyingly impatient. I also got the "just watch Alien, that's the next one" answer, but Alien doesn't cover what happens to Shaw and David with the Engineers. We never get the answers she was looking for. And in all likelihood, that was the intent, but dang-nab-it, I wanna know!

So, I say, bring us more Shaw, bring us to the planet of Engineers, and bring us the answers she was looking for! ('Cause I wanna knnooowww! XP).

Ridley Scott's Alien Inspired Nails

If it wasn't already made clear, I'm a nerd and proud of it. This includes Science Fiction. Lots of Science Fiction. Tonight my friends and I are planning on seeing Ridley Scott's Prometheus, prequel to his astounding Alien franchise, so, in true nerd fashion, a couple of my girlfriends organized an Alien marathon last night. I could only stay for one film, since I had to get up early this morning for work, but during this film, I took the time to paint my nails as a tribute this series.

I had wanted to take photos of every step of the process, by my phone died, and though a friend offered to do it for me, I didn't want to pester her during the movie. I will, however, outline the steps required and the materials used.

Steps:

• File and buff nails, apply a cuticle oil and lotion afterwards.
• Apply base coat and wait for it to dry.
• Apply glossy, opaque black nail polish. Two coats if necessary. Wait for it to dry.
• Add splatters of acidic alien blood by putting dollops of green polish on nails and spreading them out with a tooth pick or small dotting tool to all nails but the ring finger.
• On ring finger use a tooth pick or small dotting tool dipped in white to make a curve two thirds to three quarters of the way down from the nail bed. This is the base of the smooth structure of the forehead.
• Beneath the curves, use the same technique to scratchily put on the teeth. If you have the curve high enough on the nail, you may be able to pull off the famous "double mouth" of the alien. I did not.
• Once all nails are dry, apply a top coat.

Materials:

• Seacret Spa's Nail Care Collection for their file, buffer, cuticle oil and lotion.
• Sally Hansen's Complete Care Extra Moisturising 4-in-1 Nail Treatment for the base and top coats.
• Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in Black Out and White On.
• Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Fast Dry Nail Color in Lickety-Split Lime. (It damn near killed me to spell colour without a 'u').

And that's all you need to get yourself some nerdy Alien nails. Hopefully next time I'll be able to get photos of each step in the process.

SWATH Sequel? You Better Blow Me Away

So it would seem, that Universal is using it's opening stats to potentially launch a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman. (Details from The Mary Sue here.) While I think they're taking numbers bloated by people who were enticed by the trailers and let down by the film a little too seriously, I am hesitantly excited for this sequel. Granted, it's still being negotiated and is by no means certain as of yet, there is a lot of talk around it already. Apparently, while negotiating the first film, they included an option for two more films. So clearly, Universal was hoping for SWATH to become a big franchise, but with the barely satisfactory production of the first movie I, for one, am going to need something a whole lot more fine tuned to be impressed.

Depending on how good it looks in promotion, there is a decent chance I'll give the (potential) sequel a shot. But they had best do it right this time. SWATH fell short, but not for a lack of potential. The biggest problem is that it felt like they could have done so much more with the script. Really explored some amazing themes, plot points, and character development, but unfortunately, they chose to keep it (mostly) cookie-cutter.

So I say, let them make this sequel, I'm willing to give any story with a great deal of potential a chance, regardless of an uninspired execution. But if it doesn't blow us away, if it doesn't pay just as much attention to it's character development and unique plot devices as the eye-catching production values, then I hope they're ready for the ridicule that will follow. Audiences will rarely suffer one film that doesn't measure up, let alone two.

MIB 3 Totally Holds Up; Madagascar 3 Funny

Following my disappointment with Snow White and the Huntsman, I turned to humor to cheer me up, and so, last night I went to see the third movie in a franchise I have been hooked on since I was 12. Men In Black 3. And I have to say. It TOTALLY holds up. You can never be sure with sequels, but there is something about MIB that they are doing right. I don't know if it's the actors, producers, writers or directors, but honest to God, this movie is exactly what I expected. True, in the beginning, there's some "Okay, yeah, it's still funny, but haven't we done this young funny guy annoyed with cranky old man bit before?", but they take it and keep going on to the next level, going back in time to show Agent K before he was a cranky old man, when he just a young, 29 year old Junior Agent. And the actor they found to play him? Perfect. Josh Brolin captures all the nuances of Tommy Lee Jones' Agent K and plays them up just right. Those lifelong ticks are still there, but with a younger, more relaxed feel to them, just enough to make you think you're really, seriously looking at a younger Tommy Lee Jones (at least for those of us born in an age where he's got white hair. I have honestly never seen Tommy Lee Jones young). They even got his EYEBROWS right! I was completely flabbergasted at that, I assure you! Will Smith's performance is flawless, as usual. There's really nothing more I can say about it. Flawless.

The story line follows the MIB formula, threatening evil Alien, potential invasion, must save the world, reveals more about K's past, but once again introduces new elements to make it feel fresh. (SPOILER: And not only do we learn about K's past, but there's a nice little tidbit about J in there as well.) So all in all, (voted by myself, my fiancé and the couple we went out with). MIB 3 holds up.

My other adventure into the comedy realm this weekend was Madagascar 3. Now, to be honest, I had never actually seen the first two. I tried to watch the first one, but was working graveyards and going on something close to 17 hours without sleep when my best friend and I put it on, so I fell asleep not all that far into it. Then there was no point in seeing the second, since I hadn't seen the first. In recent years, there's been so much hype about Madagascar, that I just avoided the series altogether. But, they used one brilliantly entertaining piece in their trailer to get me hooked on seeing the third. Especially after watching my fiancé  lose his mind laughing at it.

This bit very quickly became a favourite among our friends, being song as loudly as possible at completely random moments in time, both privately and publicly. So it wasn't that hard to decide that this third one would be the one I watched, and you know what? It. Was. HILARIOUS. I suddenly understand all the hype, all the non-stop jabber, why kids and adults alike hail this series. I never thought I'd be on the Madagascar bandwagon. But I assure I will most definitely be watching the first two in the near future.

A Review of Snow White and the Huntsman and Kristen Stewart's Role in it.

Last night I excitedly went out to see Snow White and the Huntsman. I've been looking forward to this movie for many months, if not a full year. The previews were exciting, dark, and beautiful. Being a great lover of fairy tales, and fairy tale retellings, this movie seemed to have everything I could hope for. A wicked, truly evil queen; a rugged, handsome huntsman, to train this young, innocent princess into a hardened warrior. A war and a cause worth dying for. While the movie was acceptable, and I would surely watch it again (though I wouldn't go to theatres a second time), it fell short in some very definitive ways.

At the moment, I haven't figured out how to hide paragraphs behind a tag, so I will warn you now that the following will contain spoilers.

The primary problem throughout the film, as stated by Susana Polo of The Mary Sue here, is that the entire plot is formed on the basis that Snow White is destined to defeat the Queen and save the Kingdom. She never actually does anything that proves her to have any natural or hard-earned ability to do so. It starts off well enough, giving the heroine a magical and mysterious origin through some form of unintentional blood magic. It creates a setting of mystery and provides an origin few, if any have seen for Snow White, and it continues well describing her childhood, the death of her mother and the enchanted coming of Queen Ravenna, played by Charlize Theron. But soon the threads begin to lose their connections. The Queen keeps Snow White locked in a tower for some 10 years or more, this is acceptable as it holds to traditional elements of fairy tales with a female lead, however, the reasoning for it is lacking. As my fiancé asked me, "Why keep her alive?" I quickly made sense of the theory that if she kept the Princess captive, no one would dare rise against her. The Princess is their only hope of the Kingdom ever becoming peaceful again. As long as she is alive, the Queen can assure her own safety as none would dare risk the Princess' life. Except that we quickly learn that no one KNOWS she's alive. So what's the point? If everyone believes she is dead, and no one is revolting anyways, why not kill the only person with a legitimate claim to the throne? Granted, the Queen is used to getting her way, but for someone as forward thinking and conniving as the Queen, it makes little sense.

Along with this oversight, we see Snow White running, jumping, climbing and overall performing feats of cardio an athlete would be jealous of, despite being locked in a small tower with little room to do much of anything for ten or more years. To further that, we see a great deal of 'evidence' that she is 'destined' to save everyone, with her doing very little to deserve the praise. The few times they have the ability to really dig into the plot and come out with something truly unique, they glance over it. Such as the origin of Queen Ravenna and the connection linking her and Snow White together. If Snow White was created by the same source of magic as Ravenna, why does she have so little power or influence over her? Why can't she, in her moments of greatest anguish and fear and anger, interfere with Ravenna's magic? (This insight is brought to you by my fiancé). And after she bites the apple, when she is 'dead', and she wakes up magically, claiming to have "seen what she sees, know what she knows" do they not take that opportunity to show us what happens to her, wherever her mind, or soul, may have been during that time. It could have been a great tool for exploring some of those themes they simply touched on, again, such as the connection between her and the Queen, and the powers they both seem to have. In the final act of the movie, we see an armored Snow White, riding across the beach, ready and willing to kill those who fight for the Queen, despite her telling the Huntsman in the beginning, that she could never kill someone, even if they attacked her. Clearly her death changed her, and it's a shame they let the opportunity pass to show us how, or why.

On the note of her coming out, ready to fight, I had entered the theatre anticipating the Huntsman to train her into a warrior; to teach her to fight and lead an army. To help her achieve her cause by giving her the skills to do so. This is yet another thing the writers left to 'destiny'.

There is no lack of 'destiny' driven stories out there; but the majority of the ones coming out in recent years involve a combination of destiny, suffering, and hard work to get the hero there. Take Harry Potter for example, Harry is 'The Chosen One', destined to bring down Voldemort. But throughout his seven years we see him suffer time and again, he has powerful allies who teach him the skills he needs to defend himself, and to be clever in figuring out the clues and mysteries set before him. Dumbledore gives him riddles to solve and the tools to solve them, but never does it for him. Lupin works with him day and night to teach him the Patronus charm. Yes, destiny plays a hand in keeping him alive, but it never does his work for him. He has to go out and search for the things he needs to defeat Voldermort. This is something we never really see in SWATH. Yes, she has to make it to the Duke's stronghold to get an army, but she doesn't even do that herself. Partway through she bites the apple and gets carried there!

There are things that were wonderful about the movie. For instance, Queen Ravenna is wonderfully written, complex, and enthralling. She is both beautiful and horrifying. Charlize Theron played the role stupendously. I honestly BELIEVED she was bat-shit crazy, and she is definitely someone I would never want to risk coming across.

The costumes and settings were wonderfully done, the aspects that were meant to be beautiful were more than that, and the things meant to be morbid, dark, terrifying definitely were. This movie definitely qualifies as eye-candy. I also have to give them props for making Kristen Stewart look like she went through hell in the dark forest, with a tear-streaked make-up smeared face, rats-nest hair, torn clothing, and grime embedded nails, she wasn't 'hollywood' grity, she was really, truly grimy in the face of all the trials she just went through. They were definitely willing to sacrifice hollywood glam for the sake of the story, even Ravenna, who's character is obsessed with beauty looks truly horrible in some scenes. (This is NOT a commentary on Kristen/Charlize's beauty in and of themselves, but about the creative license taken for the sake of telling the story).

I haven't seen her in much, and as such, even though, in my opinion, Kristen Stewart sucked in the Twilight movies, I wanted to give her a chance in SWATH. After all, Robert Pattinson was just as terrible in those movies and I've seen him do well in others. When she's talking, I believe her character. When she comes across terrifying things in the dark forest and her iris's are tiny in the whites of the eyes, I believe her. When she's charging into battle to free the people and avenge herself and her father, I believe her.The problem is, when she doesn't have lines or some intense action, she doesn't know what to do with herself, so she defaults to the heavy breathing, parted lips, wide-eyed look she has all throughout Twilight. Perhaps one day she'll hone her craft, but until then, she's a very meh actor to me. (Also, to give her a small concession, a lot of SWATH depended more on 'destiny' and very little on what Snow White could do for herself/her development as a character. The things that could have truly developed her in the movie/the things they could have explored that would have given the whole movie more depth were glanced over, so I can't say with 100% finality that she's meh, though considering what Charlize did with her role, I can't dismiss it as coincidence either).

There are other things I could pick through both for the better and the worse, but I'll leave it off here (unless someone asks me to go further into detail, though I doubt that'll happen). Overall, a pretty, acceptable movie with some wonderful acting (i.e. Theron) and some mediocre story-telling. I would more than willingly watch it again for fun, but it's not a movie that greatly moved me or changed my life in any way. I will survive just as well seeing it again as not.