Every sci-fi fan on Earth was looking forward to another dark Ridley Scott sci-fi from the instant this project was launched. Did he deliver on those expectations? Sadly, no.
A tiny annoyance first. It would have been easy to name Rapace's character Dr. Berget or something similar. She is a world famous cave-digger-look-around-for-stuff-people, so naturally she could have taken any nationality. By naming her Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, there is little doubt she is meant to be British, leaving her feeble attempts at hiding her Scandinavian accent an unnecessary nuisance. Furthermore, she lacks a bit of depth in many of her scenes and is not helped by having a much more charismatic Theron showing up regularly. And Theron has been better. The best cast performances come from Idris Elba and Michael Fassbender. The latter nicely combining HAL and C3PO with just of hint of Bishop.
Apart from the cast, the storytelling lacks panache. It feels uninspired at times, as if Scott just needed to fill a few minutes of film before he can chuck some effects in there again. Like bad porn. With some real stupid twists, dull choices and serious logical flaws, Scott really could have tried harder. The cinematography is most impressive though, and there are some cool future gadgets.
What Scott still does very well is suspense in the correct sense of the word. The eerie quiet. That sneaking feeling that something horrible is about to happen where you catch yourself forgetting to breathe. He also still has a knack for coming up with cool ways to die in space.
This is a film that will entertain you for a lot of it's duration, with the exception of the very tedious last 20 minutes. However, it will rarely challenge you and it adds little of anything of real value. Nowhere near a classic, and most unworthy of the hype.
6/10
I saw the film at the local odeon, and sat there with a packet of sweets and a box of pop-corn, all geared-up! Two hours later I felt like hurting someone. With a blow-torch and a pair of pliars. For starters.
SvarSlettI would have written something nasty about Naomi Rape-ass, but her performance was so forgetable that I only remember her repeating that stupid face she made infamous in that baby-calling piece of shit I wasted money on some time back.
I would have written something about the plot, and consistency of the story, but there is not much to write. The film felt a little like playing Mass Effect 3 - all hyped up, but when you're actually experienceing it you mostly feel like gouging your eyes out.
What was the point of all that stuff in the beginning of the film, with the humanoid disintegrating in the water? It didn't have any bearing on the rest of the story what so ever!
And the HAL9000 meets Bishop meets C3PO - well, another word for that is "rip-off". I guess it's OK for Scott to plagiarise his "own" Bishop from the Alien-movies, but it's not OK to plagiarise HAL9000.
And why did the bio-monsters look like the monster in "Alien"? Is it so ¤#/(/) hard to come up with something innovative?
And finally; if I were a terribly rich multi-gazillionaire on a quest for eternal life, I would not let a bunch of inbread cowboys pilot my spaceship. George Lucas patented that ridiculous idea 30 years ago, and it was no more believable back then - though a lot more fun.
I was very disappointed with the film. I'll give it 3 out of 10, and that's ONLY because of Charlize Theron.
There is absolutely, positively no doubt that this movie has a lot of flaws, and I agree with every point you're making here. Still, I felt that the mood of the flick, the (part time) tension and the cinematography makes it just above the average film. It has a decent top-level, but is horrid at its worst.
SvarSlettAnd let's face it: We all wanted to see HAL as a person apart fra Eric Cartman. Unfortunately Cartman was better. ;)