Prometheus Trailer: The Aliening

You may have heard about Ridley Scott's new movie, Prometheus, his much-heralded return to the sci-fi genre. Originally, Prometheus was to have been a prequel to Scott's 1979 classic, but at some point in its development the project seems to have taken another more mysterious turn than simply being an Alien prequel. Scott and members of his cast and crew have made a lot of conflicting statements about just how much this movie has to do with the Alien series. Scott has made strange comments about the movie having "Alien DNA" and has implied that the movie is set in the same cinematic universe as Alien but he has denied that the famous monster makes an appearance in the movie.

Perhaps this is a bit of misinformation. Or maybe Ridley Scott is attempting to manage expectations so that people don't go into his movie expecting another Alien sequel in which his cast is devoured one-by-one. Aside from its connections to Alien there does seem do be a lot going on with Prometheus and the filmmakers have alluded to some big themes that apparently wouldn't be able to be shoehorned into a movie about a monster on the loose.

Today, a lot of questions are answered about the movie with the release of its first official trailer. For a movie that the filmmakers are trying to disassociate with Alien, this trailer really works in as many references to the classic movie as possible, from its eerie music first used in the original Alien trailer, to the title which slowly assembles over the moving images.



Also like Alien is what looks like a terrific ensemble cast including Idris Elba, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, and Guy Pierce. Heading the cast is Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Once again, Scott has put together a group of established character actors, edgy up-and-coming movie stars and international talent.

From what little we can tell from the trailer, the movie is more clearly connected to Alien than Scott has been letting on. It looks a lot like much of the footage from this trailer is set on LV-426, the planet on which the first crew discovered the derelict ship and also the setting for most of Aliens. The planet from the Prometheus trailer has the same murky windswept craggy appearance. Later in the trailer, we see the derelict ship from Alien both balancing on its end, and then crashing down, perhaps into the position in which it is found in Alien.

Scott has long indicated a desire to explore the mysterious "Space Jockey" that was found in a fossilized form inside the ship in Alien and he looks to have made good on his wish. Here we see a quick shot of what looks like the head or helmet of the creature going through some kind of medical scanner. Later, we see it aboard the derelict as it rises from the floor and assumes its familiar position.

There are also some strangely unfamiliar things in the trailer. In a shot that recalls a similar situation in Alien, we see Michael Fassbender in a dark chamber filled with pods, but these pods are metal instead of the expected organic eggs. The room is dominated by the colossal sculpture of a human face, which we have already seen in the film's publicity materials. Shortly after, it looks as though Fassbender is face-hugged, although it is no secret that his character is an android. And then there is Fassbender again, pulling something out of a container.

I can't tell you how psyched I am to see this movie. We've gotten used to the idea of an Alien series of movies and have forgotten that Alien was very much its own thing, with it's own unique Anglo Gothic Horror vibe. Prometheus looks to take us back to the Lovecraftian horror roots from which Alien spawned. June 8th, 2012, people.



Patrick Garone is a writer, director, sketch comedian, and blogger. He is the author of City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. Follow him on Twitter for fun-sized ramblings on nerd culture and politics.

Monster Movie of the Week: Rebirth of Mothra (1996)

Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
Directed by: Okihiro Yoneda
Genre: Kaiju eiga/Family

THE MOVIE

After Godzilla was "killed" in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah to make way for an American movie, Toho decided to produce a few movies focusing on their second most popular kaiju, Mothra (with the also-popular King Ghidorah in a supporting role). While she's best known to audiences for her many appearances in Godzilla's movies, Mothra actually debuted in her own eponymous movie in 1961, before being incorporated into the larger Toho monster universe, so Rebirth of Mothra is not her first time carrying a movie.

Rebirth of Mothra and its two sequels are not particularly well known in the U.S. (the third one has never even been available on DVD) and they might strike Toho fans as a bit kiddish but that shouldn't stop anyone from checking them out. Kaiju-philes will find a lot to love and some very cool monster designs despite the juvenile tone, ham-fisted environmental message, and low budget. It's also nice to see Mothra and Ghidorah get some of the spotlight for themselves.

More than any of the other Toho movies, the Rebirth of the Mothra series gives a central role to the Elias, the ubiquitous twins who have been Mothra's keepers and companions since her very first movie. Here the Elias are joined by a third (and evil) sister, Belvera. While the Elias ride around on a small butterfly, Belvera's mount is a tiny fire-breathing dragon. Throughout the three movies of the Mothra Trilogy, the three sisters battle it out, often using humans and monsters as surrogates, for the fate of the world. It's actually nice to see the Elias doing something more active rather than simply singing or waiting to be rescued.

In the first Rebirth movie, Belvera seeks to unleash an ancient monster, Death Ghidorah, from it's tomb deep within the heart of a mountain. She possesses a young girl to help her, while the girl's brother is enlisted by the Elias to prevent their sister from releasing Ghidorah. Sadly they fail and the monster wreaks havoc. The twins are forced to call upon Mothra who is old and exhausted from having just laid an egg. She is defeated by the monster but her offspring hatches and joins the fight. The battle rages and the mother is defeated but the new larva spins a cocoon and is reborn as Motra Leo, who finally defeats the monster and avenges his mother.


THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

The Mothras tend to be on the cuddlier side, as they had during the Monster's appearance during the rest of the Heisei movies but I'm happy to say that Mothra Leo is given a slightly more aggressive design than the traditional Mothra. This is perhaps because he is the first explicitly male version of the character that we have seen.


Death Ghidorah is a bit more interesting as he is a substantially different version of the character than we have seen. In fact, he is not really even King Ghidorah but rather a kind of "Ghidroid," who shares a lot of Ghidorah's characteristics-three heads, wings, a nasty attitude-but has a different body layout and coloration. I, for one, like the redesign as the traditional Ghidorah has always seemed a bit topheavy and awkward, stumbling around on two legs. A four-legged Ghidorah makes a bit more sense. As much as I like the classic golden scaled appearance of the original Ghidorah, I like the rough skin texture and dark color scheme on this one. It's a really good alternate look for the character.
This look for Ghidorah is pretty influential as well. The short neck and smaller proportions made an appearance in the great Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack. The quadrupedal body layout also returned in Godzilla: Final Wars as Kaiser Ghidorah, who looks a bit like Rebirth of Mothra's Death Ghidorah.


HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

The first two Rebirth movies are available as a two pack DVD in the same style as most of the Heisei Godzilla movies. They are available as mail rentals from Netflix and all three movies are free to watch on Crackle.


MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The extended battle sequence at the end is pretty cool and is actually the first time Mothra and Ghidorah have tangled without Godzilla.

TRAILER





Patrick Garone is a writer, director, sketch comedian, and blogger. He is the author of City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. Follow him on Twitter for fun-sized ramblings on nerd culture and politics.

Monster Movie of the Week: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Genre: Socio-Science Fiction

THE MOVIE

The second sequel to Planet of the Apes is a striking about-face from its immediate predecessor, the mostly light-hearted Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Conquest is the darkest and most violent of the Apes movies and is very much a product of the gritty early seventies, the heyday of violent exploitation movies.

Chronologically, Conquest takes place twenty years after Escape and tells the pivotal story of how the Apes took over the Earth, portraying the early events of the world we see in the original movie. In a bit of early '70's futurism, the movie is set in a spare and sleek 1991. In this future, America has become a dysutopian society that is reliant on the slave labor of (genetically engineered?) apes. These apes are mute and beat down, not unlike the humans in the first movie.

The rather flimsy back story for the apes is that there had been a plague that killed off the earth's population of dogs and cats. Apes were brought in as replacements (!) and ultimately they were trained to work menial tasks and hard labor. Humans eventually began to rely on them so heavily that the apes became a cornerstone of the economy.


Meanwhile, Cornelius and Zera's child, Ceasar, had been raised in secret by the circus owner, Armando. For most of Ceasar's life, he has been hidden from the authorities who believed that they had killed the child of the talking apes and safeguarded humanity's future. In a trip into the city, Ceasar and Armando are separated and Ceasar is forced to hide amongst the ape slaves. He is ultimately purchased by the governor of California, a slimy fascist who could give Charlton Heston a run for his money when it comes to scenery-chewing. Soon, Ceasar witnesses the brutality of human beings and over the course of the movie he is forged into a revolutionary who leads an uprising against human beings, and sets into motion the future we see in the original movie.

While there is no time-travel in this movie, it is interesting to note the fundamental paradox at the heart of the original Apes series. The planet of the apes only came about because two apes were able to travel back in time on a spaceship sent by men to explore the cosmos. If Zera and Cornelius had been unable to restore Taylor's (or Brent's) ship and travel back in time, they would not have been able to leave Ceasar behind to found Ape society. It is Taylor's trip to the future that sets the whole series of events in motion.



By this time, the Apes movies had established themselves as being quite popular with black audiences. One could speculate that this is because they depicted a world in which the white power structure was obliterated and Charlton Heston-the epitome of blond, Anglo Saxon American manhood-was objectified, humiliated, and dragged through the street in a way that recalls how African slaves were treated in the U.S.. Or perhaps it is that words and images of apes and monkeys had always been used by white racists to dehumanize people of color. In the context of the American racial experience, an ape planet in which all-American Charlton Heston is nearly done in by intelligent talking simians only to collapse at the ruins of the Statue of Liberty is powerful stuff.

Remember, this is during the late sixties and early seventies during a time when the Civil Rights movement was taking a darker turn with a backdrop of riots, assassinations and violence. While the Apes movies have always had an important sociological component, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes brings this to the fore like no other. It is very consciously aims to be part of the revolutionary dialogue of the times, and its visual references to then-current events would not have been lost on its original theatrical audiences.


Another interesting point to consider, is the movie's connection with the 2011 series reboot, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which can possibly be considered a very loose remake of this movie. Both movies are concerned with an ape uprising led by a chimpanzee named Ceasar. While that Ceasar is not the product of time-travelling super-intelligent apes, the two movies do cover quite a bit of the same thematic territory and are interesting companion pieces.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Sadly, Conquest continues the sad trend of diminishing budgets in the Apes sequels and the ape effects do suffer in this one. This is particularly true of the many background ape characters which are realized through god-awful overhead masks as opposed to the more expensive prosthetic appliances used on the lead characters. Unfortunately, even the terrific Ape make-up starts to show its limitations here, as the mouths are not really as expressive as you'd like for such an intense high-drama story as this and Roddy McDowell often sounds muffled under his make-up.

McDowell returns to play the son of the character which he had made famous in the first and third Apes movies and Ceasar is a bit of a stretch from his fastidious father. Ceasar has an interesting character arc that takes him from naive young chimpanzee to furious revolutionary leader. By and large, McDowell does a good job taking us on this journey.


HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Has been widely available on home video in a number of configurations and boxed sets, some of which are quite nice. The Bluray set in particular is amazingly good not only with a whole slew of extras but a very nice hard cover book as well.

In the case of Conquest it features the ability to watch the original unrated cut of the movie, which to my knowledge had never before been released on home video. The two versions of the movie are largely the same, up until the end which features a far more violent conclusion to the movie and makes Ceasar a more militant and less likeable character. The theatrical cut uses some weird editing tricks and redubbed dialogue to soften his lines. The unrated cut seems to better suit the spirit of the movie.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

The ending battle in the unrated cut of the movie is surprisingly violent, with characters getting stabbed and shot in the face left and right.

SEQUELS

This movie was followed by Battle for the Planet of the Apes which continues the story of Ceasar and further sets up the pieces for the Ape society that we encountered in Planet of the Apes, although for my money it is the worst of the original movies.

TRAILER