Very, Very Late Movie Run-Down Thingy

Right, more decoration is probably needed but I think we're basically ready to go with The Book 2.0. The colours easy on the eyes but if I put this off any longer, it'll be next to useless.

Sort of useless now but, there we go.

[size=+1]Very, Very Late Sci-Fi Movie Run-Down Thingy[/size]​

Right. Back in the seat of inane jabber. Ah! Tis good to be back. Right, I dare say you've been meaning to go to the cinema and you know what? There's probably two films your dying to see...Last week. All right, maybe this review will sway your DVD/Blueray buying choices then.

[size=+1]Men In Black III[/size]​

These reviews were pretty late. Still, it's two movies in one review so it'll be short.

Men In Black III attempts to do what Men In Black II did and rekindle the magic of Men In Black I by way of making J figure out what K's hiding as the central plot of the film. While this did manage to build upon the world of MIB, it doesn't quite feel right. While action does get fun at times, the dialogue is slick and a few jokes pay off nicely, Number 3 still cannot hold a candle to Number 1.

But, it is allowed to lord it over Number 2.

2's villain hadn't much charisma compared to Borris the Animal. Borris is a strange, anatomically confusing biker that fires spikes from his hand while also being able to make claws appear out of his feet when needed. Oh! And survive space...Anyhorse...His competition is Edgar the Bug from the first film and the worm thing of the second. While Edgar was not only a spasm filled freak of nature that decomposed as the film carried on so managed to be visually interesting throughout, the worm thing failed to make much of an impression on myself. The fact that I called it a worm thing rather than go and Google it's name is probably testament to that. My only problem with Borris is that he doesn't do much. He's all menacing and what-not but is otherwise kept at arms length plot-wise until the final fight. To add to that, his lines seems to be primarily spouting a few catchphrases. This leaves filling the rest of the screen time to J, K and K.

As you'll probably know, time travel is what's driving this plot. Borris plans to get revenge on K for shooting off his arm and stopping his entire species from feeding on the Earth. He manages to do this and kill's K. Back in the present, J is the only one aware of the temporal shifts resulting from K's death so travels back in time to the 60's MIB to help 60's K stop Borris.

What you've heard is true, Josh Brolin is really good as Agent K in his twenties. Other characters that I liked were Griffin and Jeffery Price (the guy who gives J the time-jump device) because they were both maddeningly unhelpful and slightly lost in what they were doing. Will Smith seemed able to play off that nicely.

However, the biggest problem with the film is that it doesn't utilise everything to it's fullest. There are ideas in this film that could have been interesting to see such as xenophobia in the MIB of the 60's (that seems to have come from no-where) to J being black and in the 60's. There was even potential for...oh...Hang on...

Spoiler: !SPOILER WARNING!

Andy Warhol being an undercover MIB agent. Between you and me, the joke didn't pay off as much as the writers probably hoped it would but I won't spoil it if you don't want to.

These ideas are all flagged up and nothing is really done with them. They could have fleshed out characters or added to the history of the otherwise mysterious MIB by showing us what they were like. Apart from one point where J get's pulled over for stealing a good looking car, all these ideas are flagged then ignored. The only important piece of information is between J and K that wasn't 100% necessary.

So, my summation? It's all right. It beats 2 but can't quite compete with the tighter 1. If you must get this to plug the whole in your DVD collection, I won't stop you.

Not that I physically can...

[size=+1]Prometheus[/size]​

Yes. Yes it is a prequel to Alien.

Ah...if only it was that simple....

What we have here is a fantastically well-realised, highly-polished, fantastic looking film that looks and feels great while keeping some of the spirit of the original Alien film. It's a good film that will leave you confused, possibly angry but definitely a little queasy.

Prometheus charts the story of two scientists that grab a group of other scientists and hard-nuts-for-hire to go and investigate what is believed to be the race that created human life. They all get in a ship and travel to a group of stars. They land, do science-y stuff, wonder around the ruin of a race called 'The Engineers' then slowly get picked off one by one because it's an Alien Prequel. It's legally obliged for monsters to come and kill everything after a while.

Now, for any one that's ever seen 'Lost', I understand that if I tell you that this was partly written by Damon Lindelof the next statement probably wont shock you too much.

Prometheus has a really good lead-up but lacks not only cohesion towards the end but also some of the impact the set up part of the narrative hoped to achieve. Some basic information about character motivation is unclear and it's unsure whether they are there for effect or whether they are there because of the 'It'll make sense later" style of writing that 'Lost' had carried over. For example, the pilots of the ship being strangely quick to give up their lives, their nice enough guys but why? But I can't go into most of the odd moments in the story here because that spoils everything. I'll do this instead:

Spoiler: !SPOILER WARNING!

Things like how Mr Weyland is still alive and has come along on the trip with the hopes of extending his life along with how one of the crew members is skrink-wrapped when his helmet melts but then comes back as a monster. Also, when David spikes Charlie's drink, what was the point? Why poison a crew member? Why not run tests on the black goo? When David finds that there's an Engineer left, why doesn't he get the crew to check it out first, then bring Weyland along to make sure it's safe? How many robots are there on this ship? Man, those pilots were in a hurry to kill themselves! What in blue blazes is that thing being removed from Shaw's abdomen? Why would a biologist be that stupid?

For those that wish to prolong the sanctity of the Spoiler Warning, so haven't clicked the button, in there is just questions. Questions about everything from the true purpose and effect of a black goo the crew finds to what killed off The Engineers? Why are cave paintings pointing to a star system? Why bother going in the first place when it could also be a warning rather than an "invitation"? Why is the medical pod in Meredith Vickers' quarters programmed for males? Why does she keep it when it's useless to her? Why...Hang on...

You see, the point of Prometheus is to raise questions. It doesn't ever offer much in the way of answers. It presents conundrum after puzzle after mystery deliberately to get you, the audience, thinking. Your invited to question everything in order to fill the vacuum of facts the film creates. Now everything is written well enough, even if it does fail to capture the same conversational style of the original Alien but the plot would appear to be simply a method of presenting each part of the mystery when it's needed. While effort is handed over mainly to the weird-stuff goin' down, it's good to see a few conversation moments between characters otherwise doing nothing like the pilots betting on things to Vickers and The Captain slinking off to join the 'Deep Space Club'. The only members so far have been Star Trek characters, David Lister and the annoying character Chris Tucker plays in The Fifth Element. It adds some human familiarity to a story that's designed to make you question everything.

Lastly, let's talk horror. Alien was, at it's base level, a slasher movie in space. Prometheus plays out in a similar light, aiming to keep a few of the original horror beats but with the aid of today's technology. While I will say that not every part of the gore and death hit home (although, that might have been from people laughing at it in the cinema), there is one scene that managed to bypass any built up resistance to horror on the big screen I had. I was genuinely hoping that one scene would be over in the next two seconds through-out. Of course, I won't say anything right now but those who saw the film, probably know what I'm on about.

All in all? Good. It's really well made and is intended to become another film that's similar to 2001 Space Odyssey. While I wonder if Ridley Scott has attempted to make the film get above it's station a little, I'm happy he attempted it. Prometheus is visceral, interesting and plays with the audiences curiosity to make sure you never forget that movie. If only to then retire to Wetherspoon's afterwards to try and figure out what in the hey you just saw...