Prometheus. Oh Dear...

Perhaps it is an inevitable condition of advancing years that one finds one's attitudes and values drifting toward conservatism. Even so, I never thought I'd ever find my views in alignment with either the Telegraph or the Daily Mail. However, on the matter of Ridley Scott's Prometheus - which I had the misfortune of seeing earlier today - I find myself in total agreement with the reviews of said rags posted here and here. In contrast to which, some online fanboys seem insistent that Prometheus presents the viewer with a daring new mythology as well as profound speculation on matters of human import. To this I say: if you are seeking philosophical and existential depth from a movie, even the turgid and superficial pop-metaphysics of The Matrix are more substantive than the sketchy meanderings of Prometheus. Which, ultimately is both an incredibly over-hyped film and the weakest of the Alien franchise (despite Scott's insistence that the movie inhabits a completely separate conceptual terrain to its predecessors). In light of which, del Toro's predictions about Prometheus sounding the death knell of At the Mountains of Madness seem premature (roll on the HPLHS version of this which, if ever made, I predict will be infinitely superior to the cgi monsterfest del Toro seemed intent on producing). In brief, the excitement I felt at watching the various Prometheus trailers, all of which seemed to promise a darkly Lovecraftian spin on the Ancient Astronaut myth, absolutely and categorically failed to be satisfied by this muddled travesty of a movie. If you have not seen this film yet, just watch the trailer and construct your own scenario regarding what you think is going on - it is likely to be much more horrifying and awe-inspiring than the five minutes or so of hackwork which went into the plotting of Prometheus. Despite what else you may hear on the internets, intelligent sci-fi this most certainly is not. Go and re-read HPL's At the Mountains of Madness instead.