Everyone loves a prequel, right? Ok, not everyone, but at the very least they provide fodder for the die-hard fans of some of the most established and loved movie franchises of all time. They also serve to extend and renew a classic film’s relevancy to the next generation while appeasing the appetite of its loyal core by finally answering endlessly debated theories concerning antecedent plot points to the main story. And although the creators of Prometheus protest, perhaps too much, that the film is not a direct prequel to 1979’s epic and groundbreaking Alien, and that Prometheus creates its own new world and grand mythology, it still fails to answer vital questions from either facet.
An alien humanoid being in Earth’s distant past voluntarily ingests a biological black liquid which quickly kills him, breaks down his body and transforms it into what appears to be a new type of DNA that fertilizes the floor of a massive river. Flash forward to the year 2089; archeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2009) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green, Devil, 2010) discover cave drawings all over the world depicting the same star constellation. Since the final drawing predates any human ability to map out such a distant star system, they can only conclude that highly advanced beings had once visited Earth and they might actually hold the key to the beginning of the human race. Funded by the Weyland Corporation, the pair joins a crew aboard the vessel Prometheus to visit the mapped locations from the drawings and make contact with our supposed creators.
The notion that Alien was merely a “jumping-off point” for Prometheus is a severe understatement. No matter how much director Ridley Scott (Alien, 1979) and writer Damon Lindelof (Cowboys and Aliens, 2011) assert the notion. This film is deeply rooted in the same universe as Alien and is embeded with much more than just light references, beginning with the film’s homage to the Alien opening title sequence. However the declaration that Prometheus explores brave new ground, separate from Alien, is true as well. Ridley and Lindelof boldly tackle the age-old question, “why are we here?” But it’s only bold if you are actually going to try to answer it. And not only answer it, but create a massively clever sci-fi explanation that fits into the logic of the story’s reality. To tout the beginning of humanity as the centerpiece of the plot and then not come through with some sort of satisfying answer is not only cowardly, but it drowns the film in a flood of disappointment, leaving it up to the audiences’ imaginations or even more infuriating, a contingent prequel-sequel.
A disappointing script is not the only weakness that plagues Prometheus. Director Ridley Scott is no doubt one of the best in the business, but it has been 27 years since Scott has tackled a pure sci-fi project in the director’s chair. And unfortunately it shows. He’s still a master of creating fantastic suspense but the trailers for the film play a much scarier tone than it ever actually reaches. In his defense though, Scott did not have very strong material to work with. The writing comes off as stunningly amateurish and even downright sloppy, citing egregious errors with novice science facts that can be checked with a simple Google search. And even though the characters are doctors and scientists who reside almost 100 years in the future, they emulate the same “scary movie” behavior as the kids from Camp Crystal Lake.
Adhering a bold font on the ineffective dialogue is a very awkward and unfitting score, which couldn’t be farther from the unmistakable instrumentals that helped make Alien a sci-fi masterpiece. Some scenes during the film’s climax take a proverbial ice bath, as the music dulls the intensity level from Alien to Avatar.
To his credit though, in an attempt to give Prometheus a scene to rival that of the iconic “chest buster” from Alien, Scott conducts a masterful symphony of techno-biological horror involving Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw. No it won’t be recalled as one of the greatest and shocking moments in the history of film, but it surely will not be filed under “miscellaneous” in audiences’ grey matter anytime soon.
The cast is composed of very solid actors but their characters are products of the extremely shallow script. Noomi Rapace is obviously supposed to be the “Ripley” of the film, following a similar path as Sigourney Weaver’s legendary character from the Alien franchise, but perhaps the casting department hired the wrong “girl with the dragon tattoo.” Even though her actions depict an extremely strong will and vivacious survival mentality, her demeanor and emotion just doesn’t match up. This was perhaps a conscious choice to separate Rapace’s character from Weaver’s, but it simply does not play as genuine in the impossible and horrifying circumstances surrounding Elizabeth Shaw.
Charlize Theron (Meredith Vickers) and Idris Elba (Janek) are definitely attributes to the overall story, but with the two-dimensional material allotted to them, their potential was limited with an extremely low ceiling. Vickers’ secret is completely transparent very early on in the story but Scott still adds in a “big reveal” that will shock absolutely zero audience members with or without an aptitude for sci-fi. And Janek is the good-guy pilot who only cares about the safety of the ship and it’s crew, but perhaps his most important role to the film is that his personality is the most relatable and represents every “common man” back on Earth, connecting the audience to a foreign planet light years away.
Shining through though as usual is Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class, 2011), playing the android David. Fassbender is unequivocally mesmerizing as the incredibly sophisticated robot that serves as the parallel between how the engineers of humanity look at their creations and how we as humans look at ours. It’s unfortunate that this character had to be wasted in this film as Fassbender could easily pull off a feature story surrounding David. In the beginning of the film David is the sole being manning the ship in its 2-year journey across space. The scenes of him just running his daily errands and learning about humanity through movies and language programs are so compelling it’s almost unfortunate that the crew had to wake up at all.
Sci-fi fans will not be completely disappointed with Prometheus. The visuals and effects are outstanding and there are some very awe-inspiring scenes, although they do resonate more on the horror aspect of sci-fi. But if you’re going in to this film as a loyal fan of the Alien franchise, do not expect it to answer many of your big questions and be prepared for a facehugging implantation of new hypotheses to digest.
Story: 6.0
Acting: 6.5
Writing: 5.5
Captivation: 6.5
Replay Value: 6.5
Total = 6.2 out of 10
