Comments on: On Prometheus and post-television cinema http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2012/06/15/on-prometheus-and-post-television-cinema/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 By: Jason Sperb http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2012/06/15/on-prometheus-and-post-television-cinema/comment-page-1/#comment-209494 Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:56:11 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=13480#comment-209494 Prometheus would be great as a pilot, though maybe not on the level of BSG or Lost perhaps. I think your distinction about genre is interesting–is it even possible to make a great self-contained sci-fi narrative world now within the confines of a single film? Most likely, but would that be truly satisfying for audiences (now) used to stories that go on and on, or ones that create endless gaps for the fans to fill for them? I’m increasingly wondering if the appeal of a fractured film like ‘Prometheus’ is precisely because it gives fans so much space to imagine their own narratives. But that seems to be pushing (outsourcing) a great deal of the intellectual labor onto fandom–participatory culture for the win!

]]> By: Jonathan Gray http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2012/06/15/on-prometheus-and-post-television-cinema/comment-page-1/#comment-208824 Sat, 16 Jun 2012 18:55:56 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=13480#comment-208824 Would that it were more influenced by television. I felt it was lovely to look at, with sweeping, external shots and often very impressive CGI; and thus as a summer blockbuster “event” it worked quite well. Where it really stumbled, though, was in completely crap characters. Even Idris Elba — who I adore — was struggling. Fassbinder was engaging as ever, and Noomi Rapace was okay, but the writing, acting, and directing made for astoundingly bad characterization. One might say that Lindelof needs longer to get his characters up and running (as indeed, several of Lost‘s most compelling characters don’t come into their own until well into Season 1) … but I found the characters in the Lost pilot far more interesting than these, and was happy to see most of this lot killed off, since I have no interest in seeing more of them.

And yet I’m still intrigued by your suggestion of this being “post-television,” as I also wonder whether the characters seem all the crappier because I’m comparing them to the much-better-fleshed-out characters that television offers today. Maybe the bar has been raised, not necessarily for film as a whole (since film still offers some great characters and always has), but certainly for sci-fi/fantasy world-building films. When I’ve been spoiled by the likes of Locke and Adama, this lot seems all the lamer … even if they’re actually not much different from the cast of Aliens.

]]> By: Jason Sperb http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2012/06/15/on-prometheus-and-post-television-cinema/comment-page-1/#comment-208387 Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:56:57 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=13480#comment-208387 There are certainly a number of different ways to frame a film’s reception. In the longer version of this, there was more about authorship, for example, which was cut to make the piece more concise. That said, the question of narrative does seem to be key to the film’s lively debate, and thus worth thinking a bit more about.

As for the visual design, I’m personally not quite sold. Ironically, one of the novelties of the first Alien was its radical shift to a more blue-collar sci-fi mise-en-scene, but this one seems more in keeping with the generic iPad aesthetic of more recent sci-fi (Star Trek, Star Wars, Wall-E). Darker, certainly, but still privileging a certain clean, sleek symmetry.

That said, a lot of mediocre summer films have striking images and engaging individual sequences–to a point, that comes with the big-budget, A-List territory–and so its fair to look for more.

]]> By: Brad Schauer http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2012/06/15/on-prometheus-and-post-television-cinema/comment-page-1/#comment-208357 Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:54:25 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=13480#comment-208357 Many people certainly seem to be reviewing it as though it’s a traditional TV show, focused almost entirely on pointing out weak character motivation, logical gaps, hackneyed plot twists, etc. and completely ignoring production design, VFX, and visual style other than to dismiss it as subordinate (i.e. “sure it looks great, but that script…”)

The privileging of narrative to the exclusion of all other aspects of filmmaking seems an arbitrary and somewhat limited reception strategy, especially with a filmmaker like Ridley (and Tony) Scott. Would the film be better if the script had gone through a few more drafts? Sure. But there are too many striking images and engaging individual sequences for me to dismiss the film as “another mediocre big-budget summer genre exercise”, even if those individual moments don’t add up to a classically unified or even completely coherent narrative.

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