So what is to be taken from the 2 "Prometheus" trailers released over the weekend? Well first, it seems abundantly clear that the new film will have more than a trace of "Alien" DNA running through it. Everything from the space jockey to the fact that he's piloting the ship designed by H.R. Giger for the original film to the alien imagery on the walls to the alien "slime" that's shown between someone's fingers to the split second shot of what look like "alien" tendrils to the cries of "Get it off! Get it off!" speak to this film fitting snugly into the overall "Alien" lineage.
However it also seems clear that Ridley Scott has taken a lot of time and energy trying to develop other aspects of the story as well and what I think we'll see (and this is only my opinion) is that the "Alien" storyline is slow to develop within this film and is probably reserved for the second hour if not the last half hour or so. It seems like Scott is going to have a lot of story telling to do before we get to that point. He's got to set up all these new characters and then tell the tale of what brings them to LV426 (the "invitation" of the trailer), then get them there, then set up the events that will unfold in the climax. With that being the case (if that's the case), and because I would assume that he doesn't want the audience to tune out the first 60-90 minutes of the story/film that he's worked so hard on, he's naturally playing down the "Alien" aspect in his public pronouncements.
There's a short but telling snippet in the trailer where Noomi Rapace says "We were sooo wrong!" This is the kind of thing you put in a script once you've had the characters spend a great deal of time establishing one idea. This almost always occurs late in a story when things happen that reveal previously unknown elements which change or completely discredit an hypothesis. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that she's making that pronouncement after the alien aspect of things has been revealed which means it's going to be late in the movie before that dreaded species enters the picture.
So why are the trailers so heavy with Alien references? Probably because Scott's trying to make trailers that people will remember and that will put butts in the seats so he's mostly using footage from the final couple of reels where the alien appears and most of the action takes place. Which is understandable. However, I think that by making the trailers so action heavy and by linking them so clearly with the earlier film he runs the risk of creating unrealistic expectations in the audience and could wind up with a lot of disillusioned fans who went expecting chestbursters and got (mostly) something more cerebral.
I for one am going to try to enter the theater on June 8th with an open mind. I don't want to miss the majority of what looks like and amazing film because I'm sitting there thinking "Where the hell is the facehugger?!?!?!"
I could be entirely wrong. But that's my two cents.
 |
| Who is this? If I'm only waiting for chestbursters I might never know. |
No comments:
Post a Comment