Boredom. It can sneak up on you at any time and give noogies without warning. It can pop up during a “comedic” film and torture you throughout. It may have even struck some of you that went to see “The Matrix Reloaded”. Of course it all depends on perception of a given film and why do I bring this up? Because that well-known phenomenon attacked me, and its tool was “Prometheus Bound”.
Alex (Daniel Tisman) heads back to where he used to live and meets up with Deacon (Jon Jacobs), an old friend of his. Alex suggests that they get the three musketeers back together, but Deacon informs him that the third musketeer, Jesse, is dead. Soon enough, Alex becomes captivated with a woman in a wheelchair (J.C. Brandy) whom the town has shunned because the people are really pissed at her for supposedly murdering her former boyfriend. Alex also has premonitions of possible bad things that will happen. Oooooooh, bad things…SCARY things! Nope, not in this film.
First things first: Jon Jacobs. He’s not the direct problem of why this film blows, but he shouldn’t be here. Unfortunately he is and that’s that, but ever since I saw him on-screen, I knew that he had to play a psycho sooner or later. His look just commanded it. He plays one in this film and does well, but he deserved better material than what’s found here. Apparently, Deacon is also a doctor and that’s the biggest surprise of all, especially when he gets into his crazy state of mind.
The other performances in here are sometimes sleep inducing, except when J.C. Brandy gets to yell out in anger toward the end. You want to know something funny? The only other good performance besides Jacobs’ is “Cop #1” (John Kirk), which is a role that lasts a little over one minute. The guy’s slightly cocky and funny as he enters a crime scene, but once he gets in there, whoa Nelly! He just wants out, as you’ll see, that is if you really want to. What we have here then is a somewhat gross underdevelopment of characters and a lack of an interesting plot.
The other problems that plague “Prometheus Bound”, lie in the technical department, an area I’m usually forgiving of because filmmakers work with what they have and what’s affordable. The camera doesn’t shake wildly, but many scenes are underlit and there are many instances where background noise in the film is not taken care of properly.
Despite the film’s title, there’s not much of a connection to the Greek myth, despite one element of the story being taken literally in a different way (being chained to a mountainside) and talk about what the name Prometheus stands for. Luckily, Aeschylus has no reason to come down here and bust caps in anyone’s a*s, though that might not be a bad idea for another film. Think about it: Greek writers coming back to life and heading to Earth to go medieval on anyone that’s disturbed their writings by changing them around in any way and….where am I? A Hollywood pitch meeting? I don’t think so. Scratch that.
