Prometheus *SPOILERS FROM POST 1538*

mikhail wrote: »

As an Alien fan, but not a Lost fan, I agree that this is very much Lindelof's baby. I just think that's a negative thing. This Lostian thing of creating mysteries upon mysteries you have only the vaguest idea of how to eventually (not this episode/film) resove is lazy storytelling. I liked the revelation that

the space jockeys are just tall, extra-terrestrial humans

.

Consequences:

Of course, the fossil record here requires as a result that they displaced homo erectus hundreds of thousands of years ago. Then the archeological record of the film requires that they reappeared (or revealed themselves) hundreds of thousands of years later only to reveal the location of a bio-weapons manufacturing facility to cave men. Finally, they decided to wipe out said cave men around the time we were just inventing trigonometry, only for a problem at said weapons facility to cause the rest of their race to apparently do nothing to fix things for two thousand years.

Tune in next week to Lost, where we will reveal more mysteries, and maybe solve one in a fashion that makes no sense because we wrote it without knowing how to resolve it in the first place.

You'll forgive me if I'm not awaiting the sequel with bated breath. (This is not my only problem with the film, just my biggest.)

(I apologise in advance for the potential length of this post and any disjointed opinion contained within.)

Well as I have stated I have various problems with the film on all manner of levels - the appalling dialogue, the bursts of poorly-conceived silliness, the ridiculous music, the ludicrous epilogue... I could go on, and I'm not for a second denying it's a film riddled with flaws. I just fall slightly more on the positive side than the negative. Slightly.

Yet I always think the accusations of perceived Lostness (for lack of a better phrase) are extremely inaccurate. I can only repeat that I didn't think the film was ambiguous enough. To me, there was no question posed that I have any interest in hearing the answer to (I also don't think a sequel is necessary, then, but for potentially different reasons). Because, for considerable amounts of the film (two-thirds, at least), I think the film achieved a good, solid mix of mystery and revelation. True, much of that was damaged by some absurd third act reveals, but I generally don't feel hard done by the film's lack of info. Too much of it, if anything. At its worst, I felt the film was bludgeoning me with its various ponderings. I almost think that if the film was braver and was either a) entirely standalone or b) willing to keep its links to Alien vaguer, it may have overcome the problems that dragged the third act down, and potentially have entered the realm of great sci-fi. I agree some of the revelations are... anti-climactic. But I still think it's full of interesting ideas.

Oh, and a brief tangent re: the ending and calls for a sequel:
Having sat through - and (with plenty of reservations, I hasten to add) very much enjoyed - every episode of Lost, for me the show wasn't about the unconvincing answers. Sure, they were occasionally a copout but ultimately it was the mystery that engaged and excited in the earlier seasons. But much more than that it was a show that had a grander focus, with each character distinctly representative of some grander ideological scheme. That was what kept me interested, not the unanswered questions. By the last season it had become abundantly clear that there were huge amounts of interesting, curious allegories and metaphors running beneath the surface. And that, more than the occasionally lame answers, was what rewarded the committed viewer. The final episode of the series was actually a fairly powerful summation of the show's grander thematic scope and often stellar character work: for those who were slowly won over by those things, the show ultimately provided adequate closure. For those who remained convinced that the show's sole purpose was to answer questions about polar bears, well then it wouldn't have closed anything (although fully acknowledge many felt disappointed for other reasons, too). And, of course, sometimes the mystery is the thrill - and in (early) Lost my favourite moments were often the hints and teases. The chase was the reward, so to speak, and the resolution was less important.

Again, I'm unwilling to defend the film entirely, because I can only agree it's an unwieldy, eccentric mess overall (albeit a strangely satisfying one). Yet I simply cannot personally agree with the suggestion that there's not enough answers, or that the writers were aiming for Lost levels of narrative ambiguity. I'd stop short of calling myself a complete fan, but I did watch Lost from premiere to finale (staying up 'til the wee hours to watch it like so many others). Yet to me there's only a thematic link to the series in Prometheus, and overall I think the film has evolved much more - in terms of tone, visuals, characters, design - from Alien DNA than anything that was ever in Lost. For me, the sense of mysterious awe and some thematic / character similarities are where the direct comparisons end.

To me, Prometheus is a relatively complete package. Not perfect, but adequately self-contained and functional within its parameters. Too complete, if anything, and if some of the revelations of act three had been better delivered or, indeed, completely absent, I think we would have had a great film on our hands. Instead, it's a disjointed oddity that still provides some grander ideas and thrilling imagery (can't praise the scene enough).