“Prometheus” (2012)
“Robin Hood” was rubbish, but Scott’s next film, “Prometheus” was heartbreaking. It should have gone so differently, and really looked like it would for while: the return to the “Alien” universe that Scott had spawned over three decades before was populated with a to-die-for cast including Michael Fassbender (who plays a robot but gives the absolute best and most human performance in the film), Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and more, and was teased with a genuinely great trailer (remember how much we all loved that goddamn trailer?). But when the film itself finally rolled into cinemas like big rolly wheel thing that Theron does not think to step out of the way of, it crushed our hopes flat. It may not be out-and-out bad, it may even have sequences (anything with Fassbender; the self-surgery bit) that are kind of great, but the whole falls so far short of the original film’s greatness that it’s no wonder everyone involved spent so much time distancing the two. Needlessly overcomplicating and confusedly overexplaining a mythology whose essence, certainly back when Scott was last at the helm for it, was its implacable, elegant simplicity, “Prometheus” essentially did for the “Alien” universe what Midichlorians did for The Force. [C-]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34cEo0VhfGE
“The Counselor” (2012)
In case the passage of time has mellowed your WTF?! reaction to this much-vaunted Cormac McCarthy-scripted hot mess, so let one who came to the film for the first time just recently remind you: holy shit. Having read and enjoyed the script, and knowing the cast (well certainly Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Brad Pitt) are all ringers, the only person to really blame for just how very bad a film this is, is Ridley Scott. Perhaps suffering from unusual reverence (Scott had been trying manfully to adapt McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” prior), it feels like Scott barely has the tiger (or perhaps the twin leopards) of McCarthy’s screenplay by the tail. The mechanical plot is incomprehensible, and the characterization almost non-existent: there’s a lot of speechifying, much of which is deliriously McCarthyish in its parboiled, misanthropic, self-interested philosophy, but everyone sounds the same and while we watch the unnamed lawyer see greed essentially dismantle his life, we’re never given a single reason to care. In fact, it’d be a complete dud, but to be fair, some of the monologues, and the more outre moments, such as the fabulously gory violence (Pitt’s death scene is awesome) and the already infamous Cameron Diaz-humping-a-Ferrari-windshield bit make it a fascinatingly tacky and tasteless one, which kind of drags it up a notch. Call it Ridley Scott’s “The Paperboy.” [C-]
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” (2014)
Exotically, extravagantly bad though “The Counselor” was, we’d probably take it over the exotic, extravagant would-be epic that followed: “Exodus: Gods and Kings” is worse than Scott in a tailspin: it’s Scott on autopilot. Somehow sapping the dynamism from a story that features a whole ten plagues and a rather famous moment involving the Red Sea, ‘Exodus’ dull script, Scott’s CG-heavy execution and Christian Bale’s dull-as-paint Moses make this Biblical disaster film both overblown and undernourished. In fact, the whole endeavor works best as a companion piece to make us appreciate just what an interesting weird job Darren Aronofsky did with “Noah.” Anyway, we digress, which is easy to do when trying to think about ‘Exodus,’ which the mind just slides off, only really snagging on Joel Edgerton’s laudably committed turn as Ramses. Even clad in the most outrageous of outfits and slathered in tangerine tan, Edgerton manages to create some believeable moments, but not enough to save ‘Exodus’ whose few redeeming features (Edgerton; Ben Mendelsohn; a few semi-interesting moments in which ancient politics take on topical relevance) are mostly washed away by crashed waves of boredom by the end. [C-]
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“The Martian” (2015)
Whereas Scott’s earlier forays into science fiction have been defined by a certain grim fatalism, arguably the most shocking thing about 2015’s Drew Goddard-penned survival story “The Martian” is how upbeat it is. This well-acted piece of Hollywood entertainment is not only a downright breezy ode to resilience, optimism, and pragmatic problem-solving, it also features one of Matt Damon’s most winning turns as Mark Watney, a crafty astronaut determined to survive life on Mars after he’s left behind by his team. “The Martian” was easily Scott’s most well-received film in over a decade (maybe since “Black Hawk Down”), going on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Actor and Best Picture. It’s not exactly the most Ridley Scott movie that Ridley Scott ever made, but as an example of proficient nuts-and-bolts Hollywood storytelling, “The Martian” is damn near seamless. [B] – Nicholas Laskin
“Alien: Covenant” (2017)
Divergent opinions aside, most of us at The Playlist can agree that Ridley Scott’s “Alien” is more or less a perfect movie. “Alien: Covenant,” a return to the nasty, gory, midnight-movie roots of the series after the ethereal meandering of “Prometheus” (technically a spin-off), is far from perfect, but it is also far from the middling disappointment that some labeled it as upon its 2017 release. “Covenant” abandons the slow-creeping restraint of the 1979 masterpiece original, though it also jettisons the blockbuster scope of James Cameron’s “Aliens” and the Fincherian pessimism of “Alien3.” “Covenant” is an F/X-heavy slasher movie set in the dank outer reaches of space, boasting an overqualified cast that includes Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, and Demián Bichir, all getting picked off by a marauding alien predator after an ill-advised planetary pit stop. The film is least successful when attempting to sew the portentous pseudo-philosophy of “Prometheus” into its story – ironically, “Covenant” is most brutally effective when sticking to blood and guts. [B-] – NL
