By Despite our best intentions, there is always something that we can’t help getting excited about, usually well beyond reason. We hear the whistle of the hype train coming into station and just rush to the platform ready to bored, so willing to ride all the way to ‘Letdownville’. This year (and every other year ever) was no exception, and there was a bevy of films that had us frothing and the mouth to see, only to wonder why we ever got so worked up in the first place.
We were witness to the fall and resurrection of a dark knight; we saw the return of Ridley Scott to a genre of film he helped define decades ago; Katherine Bigelow double dipped into military drama, following The Hurt Locker with a dramatization of the assassination of the world’s most wanted man; we got an adaption of an adaption of a timeless piece of literature, and for good measure we were also given an adaption of a contemporary piece of literature that looked as if it had been dunked into a wet rainbow and was left out to dry. All of these films were highly anticipated, if not for the contribution they were to have to their respective canons, then because of the pedigree of their source material and directors. But the higher your hopes reach, the farther they fall to the jagged crags of reality. So without further ado, 2012’s most overrated film was…
Ah yes, Ridley Scott’s foray back into science fiction that was supposed to elegantly tie into the Aliens universe while simultaneously building the foundation for a brand new franchise. Spoiler alert: it only accomplishes one of those things, and it’s not the one that leaves you satisfied with answered questions and not having regretted that you just spend $10 and wasted two hours of your time while mustering every iota of self control you have to not yell at the absolutely imbecilic characters on the screen as they make a mockery out of the fact that they are supposedly “scientists”.
Can you tell I didn’t care for it?
Okay, to be fair my feelings for the movie probably go beyond just thinking its overrated. I was just one hundred percent outright disappointed. Worse yet, I was let down so early into the movie that I just sat there dazed and confused for the remainder of the running time. It took me days, literally days, to reconcile my feelings about it. The lesson to be learned? Well, never trust a franchise whose soul purpose has become the making of money, and of course, always keep reasonable expectations NO MATTER WHAT.
Yeah…good luck with that.
Fun fact: I wrote a review of Prometheus as my submission to Flixist when they were looking for new writers, and here I am! I guess I can thank Ridley Scott for that. Or not.
