Prometheus

Spoilers ahead, you have been warned!

It’s definitely set in the same universe as the other Alien films (I’m not including the AVP films, as they have their own continuity), and has aspects from them that help to anchor in that universe. But whether it’s a direct prequel to Alien or just set in the world of it, has been something of puzzler given the conflicting statements from both Ridley Scott, Michael Fassbender and other cast members. Having seen it a few days ago, I think I have got a grips on where it stands in regard to the series and primarily Alien and the events both preceding it and following it.

Prometheus, as far as I take it, acts as both an origin theory for mankind, and in the smaller scale, an origin of how the xenomorphs (the series primary antagonists) came into existence, as it is clear from the outset of this film, that they were engineered as a biological weapon, and a pretty efficient one going off what they get up to in the future. As for the origin of mankind, the opening sequence (or prologue, depending on your personal taste) offers up an alternative theory, with one of the engineers sacrificing himself to create life on what is almost certainly Earth.

I wouldn’t give a blow by blow account of the film’s story, but following on the prologue, we are introduced to our heroine Dr Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace), an archaeologist who is searching for the creation of life (I think, but I could be wrong on this point), but finds evidence pertaining to the engineers and shortly after, her and the rest of the crew of the ship, also called Prometheus, are heading towards LV-223. Not the fabled, and possibly the worst holiday destination in cinema history, LV-426.

Like the core Alien films, we follow a selection of the crew, focusing on their stories and developments, and keeping the others in background (to be sacrificed when it is called for). These main characters are the aforementioned Rapace, Michael Fassbender as the android (a perfect piece of casting), Idris Elba as the ship’s captain Janek, Charlize Theron as the Weyland Industries executive, and Logan Marshall-Green as Rapace’s colleague and “love interest”. Of these, the stand out is, as usual, Michael Fassbender as David, who along with Shaw are the films central characters, once again the Alien series has avoided using the traditional heroic male character, instead of two unlikely, but interesting characters. A doctor and an android.  David, occupies the position of being both inferior, and yet superior to his shipmates, acting as both the human to the crew’s engineers, and also being the engineer at the same time, firm is his superiority and coldness when it comes to decisions and experiments. Prometheus is in all honestly, watching just for Fassbender’s David.

Visually, this film is stunning, as all Ridley Scott’s films, and makes you wonder what Alien would have look like with this budget and freedom, but perhaps that film would have suffered for it. Prometheus however, does not, the glorious claustrophobic interiors of the dome, hark back to the darker parts of the Nostromo, and the basements from LV-426, while giving us a scale and history that adds to the previous films. Showing what happened to the engineers, and the birth of the xenomorphs.

Some people will be unhappy that it doesn’t dovetail nicely with Alien, but I am not one of them, this films acts as fork in the road, in one direction we get Alien, Aliens, etc, the history of the xenomorphs and Ripley. Where as the other direction will hopefully take us off into the direction of the history of both the engineers and more ideas about the creation of humanity. Did it need more action and facehugging action? Maybe, but I found the bigger questions and ideas it raised more interesting than seeing someone torn to pieces. Not that there are no horror moments, there are three genuine, squirm in your seat moments, one features the classic sc-fi convention of the excess crew members in the wrong place, at the wrong time. The second is a brilliant, tense piece of self preservation and on the spot surgery that even Dr Nick wouldn’t be so hasty to get started, and the final is a struggle, in very close proximity featuring all three species.

Ignore the negative comments, and go and experience this film in the cinema where it is at it’s best. My only piece of advice, is don’t go in expecting a carbon copy of Alien, because you will let a great, thought provoking film pass you by.

The Invisible Man? - Christopher Priest

Go to most science-fiction/fantasy sections in bookstores in this country and you will see some of the giants of that genre: Pratchett, Dick, Martin, Wells and Tolkien. The list is endless. But most stores will be lacking one man who belongs in any debate about the greats of this genre. Christopher Priest. For such a prolific and skilled writer, this is inexcusable in my view.

As mentioned his work is often absent from large amount of bookstores and it's place are works of less intelligence and narrative craft. However it is by no means impossible to find Mr Priests novels in bookstores, as they often found more easily in smaller independent stores (at least this from my experience, but even if you are lucky enough to walk into one that does then you are usually met with two of Mr Priests more recent novels, The Separation and The Prestige (the book which Christopher Nolan’s 2006 film was based upon). Now this is by no means a negative, do not think about that for one second, both are genuine masterpieces in my eyes, and both should be regular staples in any science fiction section.

The Prestige for anyone who hasn’t read the novel or seen the film is about two feuding magicians in Victorian England. It would be a fair assumption that more people will have seen the film than read the novel. The book offers much more ambiguous characters, not having the rules of film narratives to consider of having a clear (as much as it is possible with these characters) protagonist and antagonist, which was something Nolan commented on regarding his and his brothers adaptation.

The story of the book while similar in principle, varies significantly in places from the plot that was used for the film, while all the major twists remain in place, and pack just as much punch as they do in the film, the novel spans a much greater time frame and really gives us a chance to see the intricacies of each character and the long and twisted story they share.

The other previously mentioned book is The Separation, a World War Two novel unlike any other you are likely read. Asked to sum up in one word, the first that comes to mind is: Complex. It tells the story of two twins during the war, and the roles they play in the conflict, it is told through a kind of diary structure, although it is told at times from different points of view. The way to understand what I am no doubt struggling to explain is to read the novel and experience for yourself an intelligently structured puzzle box of a story that throws up many surprises even to the last sentence.

My reasoning for writing what appears like microscopic reviews of these novels is to now show what many readers of this genre are missing. As infrequently these novels are found in shops, it is even rarer to find some of his other works, some that in this person’s views are stronger than the two that I have just briefly written about. I could talk about all of his novels, but will instead just keep to what are in my opinion Mr Priests two most fascinating and captivating books: The Affirmation and Fugue for a Darkening Island.

Fugue is a disaster story, but it doesn’t have any form of environmental or other worldly event as its disaster. Instead, the disaster an invasion by a very large group of people from Africa of London, and then later the rest of England, after their continent is essentially written off and is slowly becoming completely unliveable. At first, the refugees are at a controllable level, but as more boats arrive, the situation quickly gets out of control and parts of the country is over run.

The story follows the life of one man during several different time periods, leading up to and during the invasion as he tries to at first live his life despite everything going on, and then to protect his family and survive as best he can in this new horrifying version of England.

The basic story of this book, and how a country is invaded by another race, and forced to change it’s ways to take them in and bargain with them is a relevant now as it is today, in most developed countries around the world, and could allude to a number of races as the invading force, or it may not even be referring to any kind of racial issues.

As with all of Christopher Priest’s work, there are several meanings and metaphors within each novel. As I didn’t live through time period, I would hate to mumble out what I believe a major message in the work, only to be completely wrong as I lacked any detailed knowledge of the period, which caused me to misinterpret a parts of the work.

The Affirmation tells the story of Peter Sinclair, a man who after a catastrophic series of events retreats to a friends cottage, and eventually writes a biography of himself, but which is slowly invaded by another reality, and a totally different other world. This small blurb, unfortunately doesn’t even begin to hint at the levels of depth that the novel has. As with all his work, Christopher Priests work has to be experienced first hand.

This novel, above all others is probably his best work, and is in my opinion the quintessential Christopher Priest novel. Nearly every mark of his literary skill and story telling ability appears in this book at one point or another, in later stories he may have taken certain narrative tools and fine tuned them, but none offer such an insight into the worlds that Mr Priest creates in any one novel that The Affirmation does.

This may seem like an article written by a publisher as a way of getting readers to go and buy an author’s books. I write this for no other reason that to talk about a great writer that at times isn’t given the recognition that one of such talent deserves. Very rarely now do we get writers in this genre that offer plots as complex and compelling, along with a literary flair that is lacking in many of the genre’s other writers.

So why aren’t more of Mr Priests novels in book stores, is it that only one of his books have been adapted into a films or television shows, unlike many of the other writers I mentioned earlier. At face value this may seem like an unrelated factor, but consider how many films have been made from Phillip K Dick’s books, Sky frequently use Terry Pratchett’s books for festive specials and we all know how successful Tolkien’s works have been received in the last decade, and how it has spawned an entire industry in and of itself.

So if you are looking for your next book, be it online or in a book shop, consider this article for a second when you are thinking over the choices. Yes you may have to wait a few days to order the book, but isn’t it worth to know that you are going to experience something new and exciting, and that you are reading something from one of not just science-fictions greatest writers, but from one of the greatest writers of the last fifty years.

Alien

Ridley Scott's classic Sci-Fi/Horror film, or Horror Sci-Fi film stands as one of highlights of both these genre's and the golden decade that was the 1970's. At times the inability to clearly state which of the two genre's dominates the film, is to the credit of both Scott and writers Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shussett, who seemingly chose to use the strengths of both genre's without any of the weaknesses. An example of this is that went with fully developing their characters, something common within Sci-Fi, but something rarely seen in the Horror genre.

The plot of Alien follows the crew of the Nostromo as they return in the gargantuan ship from a mining job(I believe, it is never fully stated). However they are woken up before they get to earth, after the ship, controlled by the computer known as "Mother" picks up an SOS signal. Landing on the now legendary LV426, they crew explore the remains of the ship, and inadvertently bring something back.

The performances within Alien are all superb, from the smaller roles of Dallas and Kane, up to the unsettling Ash and iconic Ripley. The performance of Ripley is perfect, as Sigourney Weaver nails each note of Ripley's frantic emotional and physical jounrey in her attempt for survival, undoubtedly the performance that launched a Sci-Fi legend. Also, John Hurt's table scene performance can't be left out, it was so good, it apparently shocked the rest of the cast.

The weaknesses of Alien are small and for the most part not worth mentioning, the only consistent one mentioned is that it takes too long for stuff to start happening, or "for people to start dying", this for me is a sign of no patience and not being interested in the characters, if people ever use this criticism, I recommend quickly showing them towards the current wave of gore films. In fact, it could be argued that this apparent weakness is actually Alien's greatest strength, it is patient and is willing to add and depth and explore it's characters.

Verdict: *****(5 out of 5)

Blade Runner

NB: This is a review of The Directors Cut originally released in 1992, the reason for this is that I have yet to see both the Original Cut or Final Cut.

Ridley Scott’s 1982(Original Cut) Sci-Fi masterpiece was released to average reviews, with some critics critising the pace, Sheila Benson of the LA Times refered to it as “Blade Crawler”. But with the release of the Directors Cut (1992), Blade Runner received considerably more positive reviews, and catapulted the film from being a cult film, up to a true classic.

Blade Runner’s main plot is fairly simple, it follows Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) as he searches for five replicants (Androids, who look just like humans), after one of them killed another Blade Runner (The title for people who chase Replicants) during an interview. Deckard is then brought back , or forced back by his superior to  find these replicants and retire them, another of saying killing them.

Structure as far as Blade Runner goes is similar to the classic Three Act Structure, and without giving away major plot points they do come at the right time to keep the pace of the narrative moving. Despite some criticisms of it being slow, I personally find this to be inaccurate as not once did it feel as though the film was lagging or struggling to carry on. In fact the last 45 minutes of Blade Runner are very quick as the story begins to reach it’s memorable climax.

The whole story is told almost exclusively from the point of Rick Deckard, as is the style of film noir’s, which is essentially what Blade Runner is. Deckard plays the part of the detective perfectly, living alone concentrating on his work, whilst also having the classic brash and to the point personality that is synonimus with noir detectives.

Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) is the films antagonist, if he was to be classified. However, in the second half of the film, Batty’s apparent obviousness as an antagonist starts to fail, as we realise that all he wants is to live beyond his predetermined four year life span, that all of his model of replicants have. So is his desire to live a “bad” thing, or is it just in the way that he is going about seeking out a longer length of time to live.

Blade Runners weaknesses, are that some viewers may find it to be slow, although crawling is undoubtedly harsh. Also, the conclusion and the paper unicron has left a number of people confused over whether Deckard could possibly by a Replicant also, maybe so much a weakness, but a big piece of the plot left open.

Score: *****(5/5)