Prometheus: Origins of the Creature from the Space Lagoon

Prometheus

Directed By: Ridley Scott

Written By: Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, and Patrick Wilson

Director of Photography: Dariusz Wolski, Editor: Peitro Scalia, Production Designer: Arthur Max, Original Music: Marc Streitenfeld

WARNING: Like my review for Cabin in the Woods, I plan on discussing Prometheus in full, without any consideration for what are considered “spoilers” If you are curious to see the film, just go see it. My opinion of whether I liked it or not shouldn’t be the factor. If you are curious to read on why I think the film functions as it does, without any consideration for hiding the aspects of the narrative, then read on. Also, I’m also going to spoil Lost.

            In 2010, the hit ABC series Lost came to an end with what many considered a crashing thud. For six seasons, audiences watched a show about constantly accumulating mysteries on an island. Lost fed its hungry fans with more and more—polar bears in jungles, buttons that saved the universe, alternate timelines—and then abandoned it all for a spiritual sit down with its characters, discarding the main reason that it originally drew viewers. For months before the finale, showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse warned their fans: “true fans” only care about their characters; the mysteries were irrelevant.

            Why this long primer on Lost, when the film of the week, and for many their most anticipated film of the summer, is a prequel to Alien? Because as much as critics will be discussing the craft of director Ridley Scott, Prometheus is assuredly a Damon Lindelof work. His hands are all over this film about a group of scientists traveling to a mysterious planet to find the origins of life. And in many ways, the faults of Prometheus lie in his blame (though Scott shouldn’t escape all the blame). 

Young Adult: Sweet Pea with a Black Inside

Young Adult

Directed By: Jason Reitman

Written By: Diablo Cody

Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser, and Collette Wolfe.

Director of Photography: Eric Steelberg, Editor: Dana E. Glauberman, Production Designer: Kevin Thompson, Original Music: Rolfe Kent

Rated: R for nasty humor from a nasty woman.


This post has been edited for a correction to a beverage the main character drinks. It is Diet Coke, not Diet Pepsi.

            In her Oscar-winning role for Monster, Chalize Theron took her gorgeous and beautiful body and made herself ugly, gaining 30 pounds and wearing prosthetic teeth. Oscar loves to reward actresses who do something “daring,” meaning they are willing to look ugly for the camera while dolled up when it comes to the red carpet. But now comes Young Adult with Ms. Theron doing something actually daring. She’s often very beautiful in the film, dolled up with radiant locks of golden hair and glittering skin. But even more than Monster, Ms. Theron plays a character who is ugly on the inside: an alcoholic, devilish, and disaster of a woman with nothing much resembling a soul.

            And that’s the conceit of Young Adult, the new film from director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody. When these two last paired, they brought us something sweet (perhaps too sweet) with Juno, but Young Adult couldn’t be tonally more didactic. Here’s a film that is reckless in its ambition to bring us into a character that delights in the pleasures of personal vengeance and contempt for simplicity. Ms. Cody has explained in interviews that Young Adult has somewhat personal connections, but in many ways, it’s a universal film for all of us who have ever left our hometowns, and want nothing more than to go back someday and slap them all across the face.