‘Prometheus’ Versus Them: It’s Ridley’s Believe-It-Or-Not!

In space, no one can hear you say… “Hmmm…”

That could very well be the tagline for Ridley Scott’s new “is it a prequel to Alien or what?”, and the answer — spoiler alert! — is yes, definitely. There was never any question that the film was aping Alien in its trailer, not to mention the overall look of the film. The production design and cinematography both clearly harken back to the 1979 sci-fi classic that put Scott on the map. But it remained a bit unclear how much of Prometheus‘ story would connect to the tale of the ill-fated Nostromo. In fact, it was pretty unclear what Prometheus was about at all, thanks to coy marketing. (Not that I’m complaining about that. The less I know a bit film walking into it, the better.) I went into Prometheus not knowing what to expect. What I got? Everything.

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The Chicks: A Cinematic Bad Girls’ Club For 2011

(Films discussed in this post: Young Adult, Bad Teacher, Tabloid, The Roommate, The Help, Bridesmaids.)

It’d be nice to think that we’re in a day and age where women headlining a film doesn’t matter. But it does. Unless the film is geared specifically toward a female audience, you won’t often see a Thelma & Louise-type story driven by and centered on women in your multiplex. Your local arthouse theater, maybe. (If you’re lucky enough to even have one.) Usually, any movie with a female protagonist tends to be all about her romantic strife, pining after a guy when she’s not pratfalling. (Or, more likely, pining and pratfalling simultaneously.) The Devil Wears Prada, Mean Girls, Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion… the list of female-centric comedies that don’t revolve around the womens’ love lives (and are actually funny) is pretty slim.

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