Filed under: Arts, business, creativity, movies | Tags: Alien, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, prometheus, ridley scott
“In space nobody can hear you scream” proclaimed the poster for Alien.
Even before you stepped into the cinema back in 1979 you knew, you’d read, you’d heard that you were going to be wincing with fear and disgust. When John Hurt’s chest was ripped open by a baby monster you did scream. It was, and still is, a monumental movie.
Fast forward 33 years and the “cinema event of the year” arrives with reel after reel of preview film but little in the way of proper reviews. No talk about what the content was. I feared it was a studio ploy. Keeping the film away from the critics because it wasn’t that good. And then, right at the last minute the reviews appeared. “Hmmm” that was the general consensus. So I went to my local multiplex in a state of anxiety. Could it possibly live up to the hype?
Right let’s get one thing out of the way right from the off. 3D does not make movies better, arguably the opposite, as directors strive to create set ups that allow them to show off the technique. The only 3D movie I’ve seen that even remotely benefits from the exercise is Avatar. Prometheus just doesn’t need it.
By now you’ll know the basic premise of the movie. Say what they like, but it IS a prequal to Alien and the obsession Ridley Scott has with the creation of man, religion, Darwinism and all such borders on the insane. It makes for some laboured moments and overblown plotting. The movie overall is too long (a common mistake these days) and lacks both pace, at times, and screams.
This simply does not scare you like Alien did, but apart from those criticisms it is a fine theatical experience. It looks astounding, it has good central performances from Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender and adequate back up from the rest (although Kate Dickie is hopelessly miscast).
It’s a good film. Just not a patch on Alien. There’s an obvious sequal standing in the wings but I guess we’ll have to see how this fares at the box office before taking the plunge because this ain’t a cheap exercise ($120m – which incidentally is only half what Avengers Assembled cost)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), daniel craig, Män som hatar kvinnor, Michael Niqvist, Noomi Rapace, Stieg Larsson, The Girl who kicked the hornet's nest, The girl who played with fire
Loomi Rapace. The Girl with the drago tattoo.
In true Bergmanesque fashion this languid Swedish gem of a movie starts slowly and gradually speeds up to walking pace. But let that not put you off. It’s an understated little gem of a thriller that gradually unfolds with a complex and multilayered story that is packed full of repressed sexual abuse messages.
At its core a political activist and writer (Michael Niqvist playing Michael Blomqvist) is hired by an industrialist to solve the 40 year old mystery around the disappearance of a slightly loopy teenage girl. Running simultaneously is the back story of a young super hacker (Lisbeth played by Noomi Rapace). Although a lesbian she gradually falls for, 30 years her senior, Blomqvist.
Everything about this movie is subtle, even the fact that at no point in the movie is there any reference to its title, other than in one beautifully shot scene and even then it’s almost incidental. The chemistry between Lisbeth and Blomqvist is so delicate you think it will shatter at any second, instead it grows millimetre by millimetre into a great double act. For that one has to applaud director Neils Adren Oplev whose work is unfamiliar to me.
It’s to be released next year as a Holywood remake with Daniel Craig replacing Blomqvist in the male lead role but bravely, the studio has stuck with the beguiling Rapace in the title role and =as it’s to be irected by Michael Fincher we can expect good things because at the core lies a brilliant story that has been brilliantly written. (in fact in many ways this movie reminded me – albeit in a much lower key way – of Se7en.)
It centres around abuse of all kinds, fundamentally sexual, but also racial and religious all wrapped together in a neat package that carries a strong moral and emotional punch and the good news is that the other two books in this series have also been filmed by the same team and are due for release BEFORE Hollywood enters the fray.
It’s out on DVD now but please choose to watch it the way it was intended. In Swedish with subtitles, not the coward’s way out (overdubbed in English).
