“Prometheus” is a thought-provoking and visually stunning film that is sure to leave audiences debating long after the credits have rolled. The story follows a team of scientists and explorers who journey to a distant planet in search of the origins of human life. What they find instead is a dark and dangerous world that holds many secrets. The film is a masterful blend of suspense, horror, and action, and features some of the most stunning visual effects ever seen on film. The performances are uniformly excellent, and the film’s overall sense of atmosphere is simply mesmerizing. “Prometheus” is a must-see for any fan of science fiction, and is sure to be one of the most talked-about films of the year.
Well, here we have the long awaited Prometheus, a movie originally billed as a direct prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 epic Alien. Somewhere down the road, the then returning director Scott decided to ‘branch out’ and make this prequel a story on it’s own right. Essentially, Prometheus is based in the Alien universe but it should not be considered a prequel to Alien outright.
So, is the movie any good? Well in some ways yes and in some ways no. Firstly let’s address the negative issues. The score of this movie is totally inappropriate. We have grand sweeping music which does not seem to fit well with the visual imagery that’s being displayed. I don’t mean it’s out of sync with events, i mean it doesn’t fit emotionally or dramatically with the visual material. The score is nice though but it’s completely off ‘dramatic key’ as it were.
The flick’s plotline is not always logically congruent. For example: SPOILER! When Shaw (Noomi Rapace’s character) has her ‘child’ removed and returns to see David with Weyland, etc. Nobody seems to blink an eyelid about it. Which seems very odd, very odd indeed. You’d especially think they’d want to know what fate met the child, assuming it’s dead at all. Which it isn’t. Doesn’t anybody care that they have an alien organism on their ship, for fuck sake? LOL. Now this is one element i was very worried about. I’m not really a fan of Jon Spaihts (his characters are awful) and i’m still not happy with Damon Lindelof about the ending of the Lost TV series (too many questions and not enough answers). Sadly Prometheus suffers from both these conditions, though not as severely as either of these two writer’s past works. Some of the dialogue is just weird and ‘comic-book-ish’; basically unrealistic. Realistic character dialogue is a staple trademark of the better Alien movie’s of past so the dialogue seems to stick out like a sore thumb here. The movie’s story also leaves a lot to be answered, many, many loose ends. I don’t mind loose ends to be honest but when you have more questions than answers it just sucks, plain and simple.
We knew that Prometheus had set out to ask some big questions about life. Where do we come from? Who made us, if anybody? So no big surprise that these issues should come up in the movie and they do come up… Again and again and again. It starts to grate after a while frankly. I don’t think this movie has the power to force hardline Christians, Muslims etc to evaluate the validity of their faith’s and i don’t think many sci-fi afficianado’s will be asking questions they haven’t asked before. Saying that, the movie does introduce these issues in a way i’ve never experienced before and for that alone i’ll give it some kudos.
Now the positive points. The visual effects are simply stunning. I’m not going to review the 3D aspect of the movie cause i didn’t see it in 3D (but i’m told that’s stunning too). There is no movie i can think of that looks more stunning than Prometheus and this is where you can tell Ridley Scott has been involved with the flick. Simply for the visuals/direction alone Prometheus is worth seeing.
The movie’s acting quality is excellent with particular mention going out to Michael Fassbender as the shifty android David and Noomi Rapace as the exuberant researcher Elizabeth Shaw. I doubt Fassbender will get nominated for an Oscar for his performance here but it wouldn’t surprise me if he did. Everybody in this flick is brilliant, not one single bad performance. On a personal level i liked Idris Elba’s character Captain Janek and especially liked to dislike Charlize Theron’s cold hearted bitch performance in the company-suit Vickers. Brilliant stuff.
When all is said and done Prometheus is a decent movie, it’s far from perfect for sure but it is worth your time going to see. If they had only avoided making the theistic dimensions of the movie so direct and simply implied them, whilst delivering more Alien-esque edge of your seat survivalism, it would have improved things a lot. As is, i’m gonna recommend this movie, just don’t expect it to be anywhere near as original or as gripping (or downright scary) as 1979’s Alien. Oh and it might help if you suspend belief too… Pardon the pun.
Synopsis
The movie Prometheus is set in the year 2093 and follows the members of the scientific expedition as they journey to a distant moon on board the spacecraft Prometheus. The team, which includes the ship’s captain, an android, and a team of scientists, is investigating a mysterious signal that has been detected coming from the moon.
Upon arrival, the team discovers a strange structure that appears to be a ancient temple. Inside the temple, they find a number of strange artifacts, including a statue of a creature that appears to be a pre-human. The team also discovers a chamber that contains a number of strange pods.
As the team begins to explore the temple, they are attacked by a group of hostile aliens. The aliens are able to kill several members of the team before they are finally able to retreat back to the Prometheus.
The surviving members of the team then decide to return to the temple to try and find out more about the aliens. They are able to find a number of clues that suggest that the aliens are actually the Engineers, an ancient race that created humans.
The team then decides to head to the Engineer’s homeworld in an attempt to find out why they created humans and why they now want to destroy them.
The movie ends with the team arriving at the Engineer’s homeworld. They are then attacked by a horde of aliens, but are able to find refuge in a cave. The movie ends with the team waiting to see what the aliens will do next.
Movie Details
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Jon Spaihts, Damon Lindelof
Actors: Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Kate Dickie
Release Year: 2012