The James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 18

It’s the 18th December!

Only a week to go until the big day!

It’s also time for door 18 of The James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and today we’re going all sci-fi with Ridley Scott’s Alien ‘sort-of prequel’ Prometheus.

It’s an Alien film without any ‘Aliens’ in it. I mean there are aliens, but not ‘the Aliens’. There are different aliens though. Some are a bit like the eponymous creature from the 1979 original, others are different.

Sort of like people.

But grey and bigger.

They are called ‘Engineers’.

Which isn’t that scary a name.

And they aren’t as scary as the original ‘Aliens’.

But I would want to meet one.

Prometheus doesn’t quite manage to capture the claustrophobic tension of 1979’s Alien, and it definitely doesn’t give us the adrenaline fuelled roller-coaster ride of 1986’s Aliens.

It’s a more ponderous, slow-moving affair.

It does have its moments though – most of the characters meet their doom in some fairly unpleasant ways, and there is plenty of action in the final act.

But Prometheus has higher ambitions, dealing with questions of creation, existence, and faith. It’s all very intellectual stuff.

Which isn’t to say that Prometheus isn’t entertaining.

I mean it probably didn’t hold my attention for every second of it’s 124 minute running time, but it’s far from a boring film.

Visually it’s stunning and the performances from a strong cast including Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and Guy Pearce are all more than adequate. It’s Michael Fassbender who stands out from the crowd though, in his role as the android ‘David’.

I haven’t yet seen 2017’s Alien Covenent. I expect I will soon. As things stand though, Prometheus is definitely my third favourite film of the Alien franchise.

Score For Christmas(ish)ness

We’re informed by a  sort of computer display thingy that the date is December 21st 2093 as we join the crew of The Prometheus waking up from a 2 year slumber. Captain Janek (Elba) puts up a small Christmas Tree.

Later Holloway (Marshall-Green) utters the line “It’s Christmas captain, and I want to open my presents”. He’s being metaphorical rather than literal but it still counts.

And that’s it for Christmas content.

It’s not much – hardly worth setting the film at Christmas at all really.

They could at least have had an Alien wearing a Santa Hat.