Spoilers Ahead!
Prometheus is one of the most interesting films of the past ten years, as well as one of the best made. So much goodness (Oooh, sooo much goodness…drool; I’ll save that for another time), but then…there’s the problems. Such huge apparent problems. These problems turn many against the movie, but are they actually problems?
I’ll rationalize away the science slips (So Vickers doesn’t know what a light year is; I bet many corporate execs don’t. And excitement and an unknown speech impediment turned fatal 3% carbon monoxide into not so fatal 3% carbon dioxide.) I’m just going to let those go, and dig into the issue that everyone complains about: characters. Prometheus is filled with the stupidest group of non-human-acting humans since the last Adam Sandler movie. Competent people do not act like this when they have any kind of control over themselves. They do not make these kinds of decisions. They do not have ideas this colossally dim. It is hard to feel anything for these people because they are ridiculous.
But is that actually a mistake? These people’s actions may be deeply stupid, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fitting. In fact, looking at what we are given with regard to back-stories, if any of these folks could do their jobs well, that would be a problem. We are used to films with people who are, to some extent, competent and in control of themselves. And there is a tendency to believe what a character says. But just because that’s how people tend to be in other films doesn’t mean that’s how they are here, and we are given substantial reason to believe they are both incompetent and out of control. And no one in Prometheus is reliable to fill in the audience on the truth. Much of the joy I get from the film is in how unreliable these characters are.
So what are the hints (or straight giveaways) that explain why these folks do what they do? Are they really acting “normally”? Well, no to that last question, but under certain circumstances, people don’t behave in ways we take as normal.
A good place to start is by realizing Prometheus isn’t the film you may think it is. It isn’t about science; it is about religion. Not a single main character is motivated by scientific discovery and only one (Shaw) even attempts to act scientifically and religion trumps it even for her. Three characters are motivated by religion, one is motivated by anger, two by money, and the final one by a desire to be something more. No one gives a damn about proper technique. Most have already decided their answers (and fall apart when they are wrong). If the behavior of those in the film bother you, consider if it is really the costuming that you can’t get past. If these characters were all dressed in monk’s robes instead of spacesuits, would their behavior still be off? Because that’s what they are all wearing, you just can’t see them.
As for the rest, let the geeking begin! Let’s fix Prometheus in four steps. (I will mention things from the deleted scenes, but not because they add something that wasn’t in the theatrical release–simply that sometimes they clarify what’s there.)
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