I find it an odd time when one film you looked forward to seeing disappoints, and the film you figured would disappoint actually succeeds. Very, very strange.
Now You See Me – I barely caught wind of Now You See Me by seeing Jesse Eisenberg promoting the….magician Robin Hood-esque mystery/thriller/comedy. For one thing, it surprises me in no great measure to see Alex Kurtzmann and Robert Orci (producers of Fringe and Lost, quite sure) attached to this project. In fact, it solves every single bizarre plot discontinuity with a simple word – magic. Of course, given that we’re dealing with the art of deception and bank/person robbery, one could accept this premise wholeheartedly and just enjoy themselves. With the cast on hand, I certainly did! It does everything a pre-summer genre picture does: provide a good time, if not a particularly intellectual one.
The problem, then, comes less in the entertainment value and more in the strange choices made here. Why such a huge cast for such a film that barely makes use of them? I think specifically of Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, and Michael Caine. Their range, such as it is, far surpasses something where they appear on screen for approximate five minutes tops and then make a funny quip or look angry. Seriously, could you waste their time more with this sort of thing? The people I want to see in a such a film (Isla Fisher, I guess?) perform the functional needs of the convoluted plot.
And let me make it clear: this plot is hilarious due to its combination of identity crisis and overreach. Is it a love story between Mark Ruffalo and Shoshanna from Inglorious Basterds (not bothering to look up the name)? Am I supposed to see it as a crime/cop caper? What about some meaningful treatise on magic (for that one, go see The Prestige)? It simply doesn’t achieve any of those things as it flails for some anchor somewhere. Look, it’s magic, I get it, but it could do with a human center. Even Michael Bay goes for this and succeeds…sometimes. Maybe not so much with the giant robots. Supposedly Ruffalo’s tough cop character represents us, the skeptical audience…but man, we just came to see a movie about magicians. Why remain skeptical when it’s all about the spectacle and the “how’d he do that”?
Throw in a shoehorned, and utterly baffling, entirely unpredictable plot twist near the end, and you’re left a bit hollow as to the point of the whole thing. Yeah, I suppose I’m being a bit harsh, but given this cast and the possibilities provided with magic and deception/obsession (again, see The Prestige! And Michael Caine was in that too!), all of this glamor and “crowd-pleasing” stuff sums up a giant missed opportunity to make a fun film which both uninformed observer and skeptic alike could enjoy. You’re left, instead, with random Rube Goldberg-like movements that never constitute something interesting. Unfortunate, but them’s the breaks!
Prometheus – The maybe, maybe-not prequel to Alien/Blade Runner, I settled in for a bout of lowered expectations and a whole lot of retconning foolishness. Apparently, though, you sell the whole experience short if you go into the film expecting Ridley Scott to copy himself to the letter. Well, as a fan of the Alien series in general, there’s certainly blatant references and obvious imagery you must associate with the Alien films, but if Scott says we’re in a whole different universe, I’ll take him on his word.
Whereas Alien dealt with fear, both primal and corporate conspiracy, Prometheus shows us a more hopeful look at the future…when aliens aren’t killing people, infecting them, or doing whatever it it aliens tend to do in these sorts of entertainment media. You expect that, of course; what you don’t expect is beautiful imagery, a film that actually takes equal cause with both the scientist and the religious believer, and a film that poses many more questions than it answers.
Instead of providing an answer to the question of life’s origins, Scott plays around with the concept in-between some horrible science fiction violence and the requisite action. The film tells, like any good film, through its imagery and the natural interaction of its established characters rather than telling you “magic happened!” And yes, several people (mostly scientific types) display a hilarious inclination to kill themselves by touching things they shouldn’t, but don’t let that stuff hamper your enjoyment. There’s some really great stuff here that, honestly, could only exist in a film; the visual storytelling works well enough that you can piece together little things if you’re observant, and I like that.
Now, for the obvious point of contention: this film fits, like Now You See Me, into the realm of “people associated with Lost and/or J.J. Abrams” that I so often tend to dislike greatly (if you want some specifics, Damon Lindelof. There you go). Here, though, it’s obvious that Prometheus II will exist in the near future, so perhaps the myriad unresolved plot threads will find future fruition. I’m not holding my breath, though. As well, there’s still that lingering suspicion that the whole film started as an Alien prequel which got switched around to a new franchise at the very last second. If the frequent visual references aren’t enough, or the fact that one character isn’t who appear, or the Space Jockey room, what else could clue you into it? This makes for a successful marketing campaign, certainly, but it does reduce the impact when I frequently point with ecstatic glee at the screen saying “look, that’s from Alien!”
So, it’s not a perfect film. It’s a pretty good Ridley Scott film which takes advantage of his emphasis on visual qualities and emotional performances. Perhaps Promethteus travels too deep into the rabbit hole of intellectual ideas rather than pure human emotion, but the contrast to just about every other film in recent years makes the whole experience rather unique. Just don’t go into it expecting “Alien Zero” or something stupid to that effect.
