0807.12 Supplemental
I eventually got to see Prometheus yesterday, having managed to avoid any and all reviews that might have coloured my opinion of it. Being a huge fan of the Alien tetralogy that has learned to be sceptical of all sci-fi prequels, I was naturally very apprehensive, almost as much as when I first sat down to watch The Phantom Menace in New York more than a decade ago (a trip on which I’d spent a grand I could ill afford). But while I came away from that pre-telling seething with barely-concealed rage, I walked out of the cinema yesterday disappointed rather than betrayed – which I hope wasn’t just because I’m older and the expedition much cheaper. For sure there was a lot that bothered me in terms of the story and character motivations, but equally it must be said Prometheus is a largely well acted and expertly staged movie, so I’m going to hold my tongue and try and see it again before passing final judgement. What I will say is that Prometheus has succeed where the risible AvP movies failed; by making the Alien creatures less interesting than they were before, ensuring any future encounters will be much less frightening. Now that the Aliens franchise seems to have been re-routed into Resident Evil territory, Aliens: Colonial Marines has consequently dropped a couple of rungs on my anticipation-motion-tracker.
Rather more uplifting is this story about a teacher that has managed to connect with an autistic student by joining them in their game of choice, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I suspect the story wouldn’t have ended as well had the game been Eve Online.
Still with education, a Scottish company called Interface 3 are putting together an interactive storybook for the iPad called Not Lost in the Universe, which aims to teach children of 4-7 various aspects of science, technology and engineering. It is a rather beautiful title that I hope the finished project lives up to.
I’m always a sucker for weekend retrospectives (we had X-Wing yesterday of course) and, Eurogamer have been raking over the original Metal Gear, a game that’s now 25 years old and a series that I’ve still only barely played. Does that make me a bad person?
Being a fan of the old Carrier Command that is very much looking forward to Bohemia’s island-hopping remake, I found this splicing together of old with new rather delightful, as well as annoying, since it was something I’d planned to do over the coming weeks. Great ex-PCZone minds think alike, it seems!
In a short but very sweet post, PSF reader, commenteer and future contributor (look for his words in the next issue) has a little dig around what he calls the tiny sandbox, suggesting that what the makers of Elder Scrolls and perhaps X should be doing when considering their series’ multiplayer futures is playing multiplayer Freelancer rather than trying to copy the World of Warcraft formula. In the case of Elder Scrolls I would argue there’s room for both mini and massively-multiplayer, but the idea of a small band of friends carving out a stellar empire in their own private X universe does hold appeal.
The most far-reaching story pertaining to games this week has been a ruling by the EU Court of Justice that could lead to a huge change in how we buy and sell digital games. Basically it seems that we are within our rights to sell all those crap games in our Steam, Origin, PSN, XBLA and iTunes accounts, so long as we delete them from our systems. Of course Steam et al will have other ideas about what our rights are, which will ensure plenty of legal fights and choice quotes from David Braben in the near future.
Play: Endless Space (PC), Astronaut: Spacewalk (iOS), The Secret World (PC), Speedball 2 Evolution (Android), Hoodwink (PC), Indie Royale Summer Bundle (PC, Mac, Linux), End of Nations – Founders Edition (PC), Overwatch v1.5.0 for Half-Life 2 (PC)
Invest: MacroBots (PC), HeXit (PC, Mac, Linux), Alpha Colony: Tribute to M.U.L.E. (iOS, PC, Mac), Alien Frontiers (iPad), OuterEdge (PC), Exodus Wars: Fractured Empire (PC, Mac), Skyjacker (PC, Mac), Origin (PC), Shatter of Stars (Browser), Black Space 2 (iOS, Mac, PC), Moon Intern (PC, Mac, Linux) and Jack Houston and the Necronauts (PC)
Read: The Apocalypse Codex (Charles Stross), Orion and King Arthur (Ben Bova), Lightspeed (#26)
Watch: Eve Alliance Tournament X qualifiers (yes, again), Dredd trailer, someone’s making a Prometheus mod for Doom 3.
Science: Bring out yer dead satellites. It’s official, there are no mermaids. “God particle” gives weight to ignorance
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Hey, thanks for the link to my article
Y’know I had been warned before going to Prometheus that I should not go into it thinking like it was an Alien move, and that’s what I did. I think Scott himself ended up wanting some distance between the franchises by the end of production. I think what began as a prequel to Alien ended up taking on a life of its own as the project went on.
Taken by itself, its a pretty solid sci-fi movie with some excellent production values. In many ways it felt more like 2001 or Blade Runner than Alien; big open questions, spirituality and sci-fi mixing, elements of isolation etc. And definitely not the “for everyone, summer blockbuster” some expected.
At least for the moment I’m considering Prometheus its own thing; I enjoy it most that way. Once the bridging movies show up, I may reconsider.
Prometheus does two big things wrong:
Too many 1 dimensional characters sharing too little screen time to let us emotionally connect with them
Too many themes
Aside from some terrible plot holes, the action bounces along without ever slowing down for something like depth or tension. It’s more like transformers than phantom menace
Actually yeah,if it’s better than Resurrection that’s fine, I think I’ll like it. I liked 3, and a lot of people hated that, so fingers crossed!
Oh no! Is Prometheus really ‘meh’ then?
I’ve since read that Ridley Scott would like the chance to do a Prometheus sequel and that a third movie would be necessary to tie it in with Alien. That being the case perhaps he should be given the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, if Prometheus can be likened with Phantom Menace (it’s an unfair comparison in some respects, but not in others), the last thing we need is an Attack of the Clones.
It’s better than Resurrection, does that help?