Prometheus, Writing, et cetera
Saw Prometheus last night. I’d been dying to see the film since the first trailer hit the web many months ago, and despite what a lot of people are saying about it, I wasn’t disappointed. Complaints dwell on its busy plot, supposedly one-dimensional characters, and the pervasiveness of the Alien franchise’s trademark horror elements. I’m not sure I buy the criticisms about characterization, except maybe in the case of Charlize Theron, whose character gets little screen time despite a solid, if enigmatic performance. To be honest, no negative review I’ve seen has mentioned the tacked-on second ending, which I found to be completely unnecessary. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say that I haven’t stopped thinking about the film, contrasting my expectations of it with my actual experience, and with others’ criticisms; and I plan to see the film again, if possible. It’s easily the best science-fiction film since Duncan Jones’s Moon, or Inception – which I consider fantasy, rather than SF, really – even if it is a tad bit flawed. I loved the visuals, the performances by Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender, and some of the ideas put forth about the nature of intelligence and creation. The 3-D was spectacular, but gave me a slight headache, which I get fairly often with 3-D theatrical releases (The Avengers was a notable exception).
Been writing quite a bit, compared to still-in-college Alex. Full-time banker Alex has churned out a short (often very short) story every consecutive week since, well, May 10th, to be exact. That’s five stories in five weeks; I’m very proud of this small milestone in cultivating regular writing habits, even if it means I haven’t exactly developed a high word count.
What else?
It hasn’t quite hit me yet, that I’ll never step foot inside a classroom, after eighteen years of institutional learning. That I’m more or less in charge of how I spend my time outside of work. Been reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, albeit sporadically and somewhat slowly over the course of two weeks or so. Enjoying the hell out of it, though — it may end up being one of my favorite novels by the time I’m through with it. I can definitely see the influence Gaiman’s had on Joe Hill, whose novel Horns is probably my all-time number one.
Yeah, I’ll probably have more to say about Prometheus sometime in the next few days. Might write a review for someone else, or just post a short one here. We’ll see.
American Gods is one of my all-time favorite books. Hooked me on Gaiman.
Grats on your writing success! Hopefully, you keep on your roll!
Hey, good to hear from you! American Gods has definitely convinced me to seek out more of Gaiman’s novels.
Great to here about the writing, Alex. Keep on pounding those keys!
Thanks! Will do. Been having a blast, and the ideas seem to be coming in groups, rather than one at a time — at least for now.
Im old enough to of seen the first (Alien) Ridley Scott release. that Story’s writting….tight , scarry as h.LL Actors..”didnt know them” but the writting was so good I cared about them all!…which is the holly grail of writting..ciematography was breath taking….I see a huge hole in the new crop of the SiFi Genre… too much use of video toys and terrible non plausable amateuristic story telling with no imaganation..Promithius was a beautifully made film…however the thing that will relagate it to the 200-300 million dollar heap pile of forgetables?… is simply a bad bad story.. No one less than James Cameron told Mr R scotts to get back to SIFI. I’m luky enough to have lived 30 more yrs and I get this… souless, childish, nonsensical exuse for a story..when will hollywood wake up and stop using special effects to cover a horrible screen write..DO we really need to see yet again another android talking with no body attached…” seen it at least 4 times before” …. must we always have a female as the hero…I Loved it the first 4 times I saw Ripley who, while in hypersleep, manages to morph into an MMA muscled up super hero!!. …, Was anyone even horrified or on the edge of your seat scarred.. with your hands covering your face…no.. “Why? becuase we never got the chance to care about the charecters..I mean I cared more for the Android in Alien 2 over any of these guys. And what’s with the 150 yr old dude… spends like a trillion bucks of his own money and he has to stow away on his own ship…stupid makes no sence and is a waste of writing… He also supposedly picks the best trained and disaplined crew in the history of all space flight..something like 500yrs….and as soon as these Baboons get out of hypersleep..”which I can only assumed fried there brains”….we get the sorriest excuse of an Mchale’s navy crew…Every single one has zero dissipline or respect for the mission or the camander .They immediatly start up with there own personal agenda’s..It was irritating and laughable writting at best….but at the worst it made me, and I suspect many people turn and forget about what could of been a masterpiece..Shame on the hollywood machine and Ridly Scott who Iv’e greatly admired