5. Prometheus
You hated it didn't you? Most of you Xeno-geeks out there (including me), bulked at the first viewing of Prometheus, and damn near lynched Damon Lindelof and Ridley Scott as a result. But how wrong we were, and how right the rest of you are, Prometheus is actually an exceptional film that stands the test of solitude functioning outside the realms of the Alien universe. Prometheus has everything a growing boy needs, cool sets, mysterious goo, ominous tone, sexy people in unsexy situations, buckets of blood and some serious moments of genuine body horror. So what, if there appears to be a few plot holes, and unexplained behaviour ? Part of the joy of watching Prometheus is the ambiguity. Remember the first time you saw Alien? I do, and I remember walking away thinking I feel really uneasy right now. And after all, isnt that what all good horror films do? They play to the unknown, they play to create fear: not just for a fleeting minute, but the type of fear that lasts for days at a time.
Click here to see my article about time travel theories and Prometheus.
4. Flowers of War
So, Christian Bale has had a good year then. For starters, he hasnt threatened to assault any film crew. More to the point, he also starred in legend Yimou Zhangs The Flowers of War. This heartbreaking study of the rape of Nanking in 1937, is a poignant and beautiful film, that explores the poetry of human kindness in some of the most eloquent ways. Moments of violence seem jarring and intrusive to the sanctuary of John Millers adoptive church, but this serves only to hammer home the atrocities committed during this period. Zhang has bravely created a hero who is of Western origin, and for a Chinese audience this would have been quite a thorny issue. But it just goes to show that Zhang understands his audience well. For Westerners it gives them a route into experiencing the events, for Eastern audiences it gives them a chance to see their own history from an exterior perspective. Such as Spielberg did with Schindlers List; a Nazi character sympathetic to the Jewish plight, all preconceptions are removed, and every viewer gets a chance to see these horrendous events from a renewed emotional viewpoint.