movie: Prometheus

I saw Prometheus in Imax 3D this weekend. woo! I saw it by myself, which was kind of interesting because I'm pretty sure I've never done that before.

Anyway. The movie is a about some archaeologists who notice similarities between cave paintings in Scotland (I think) and other works by various ancient cultures on different continents. They all depict a being pointing to stars in a certain arrangement.

The archaeologists believe this image is both a map and an invitation for humankind to visit a planet. Flash forward some years, and they're on an expedition to the planet in search of beings they believe created humans. Hilarity ensues. Ok, not so much hilarity as wonder and some carnage.

There are some great characters in this movie. Great characters and what I thought was top notch acting. Noomi Rapace (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, US version) plays Elizabeth Shaw, one of the archaeologists. She goes through a lot of crap and somehow manages to hang onto her dream of finding the origin of human life, no matter the consequences.

David the android is the best character, however. He is forever robot calm and has a complex personality. His most appealing trait is how unpredictable he can be. His interactions with the people around him are motivated by anything from aspiration to be human to contempt. He's heroic and heartless at the same time. 

I didn't really dig Charlize Theron's character, Meredith Vickers. It was almost as if the writers created her and then weren't quite sure what to do with her. She has a few significant moments, but other than that...meh.

Of course, the special effects were huge and amazing. Those are the technical terms. Spaceships, storms, scenery. big, big, big. Perfectly executed, I thought. I spotted no weirdness, no halfass cgi.

There was a somewhat significant level of weirdness and different types of alien life, but I did expect to see more alien action.

So, bottom line, Prometheus was good. I would have liked to have seen more nerve grinding action and suspense like what I remember the Sigourney Weaver alien movies as having, but it was still very good. A-