Category: Sci-fi Action Adventure Horror
If you are a sci-fi movie fan, this movie is for you. If you like monster movies, you will like the second half of the movie. If horror movies are your thing, there are plenty of moments in this movie that will make you happy. If you are an Alien franchise fan, this movie is not meant for you. You can enjoy it as one of the others kind of movies but if expect this adds to the Aliens lore and the world that it lives in, you may not like what you see.
Prometheus generated a lot of interest because of it's links to director Ridley Scott , who directed Alien and the fact that it is a movie about aliens. It wouldn't be impossible to draw links to it and the Aliens franchise. The genesis of this movie is in fact from a pivotal scene in first movie, Alien. This is when the crew of the Nostromo walks into a cavernous chamber and find it filled with Alien pods on the floor. At the center of the chamber is a giant creature sitting in throne of something that looks like a telescope pointing skyward. The brief image and the question of who is the Space Jockey has been a source of popular fascination in the Aliens popular lore.
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| The Space Jockey in Alien |
There have been no clues in the other movies so the identity of the Space Jockey is a mystery to most people. The novel Aliens: Original Sin doesn't count.
So it this movie a prequel? Yes and No. You will have to read the spoilers section at the bottom for an explanation.
The movie starts with a mysterious figure who looks like he committed suicide. That's a great way to start a movie, a mystery that will make the audience talk about after the movie. The problem is that it encourages the audience to think and look for clues that may answer that mystery. Unfortunately, this movie is enjoyed best without doing that.
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| Another view of the Space Jockey in Alien |
The movie then jumps to two archaeologists who make a startling discovery in a cave: a pre-historic cave drawing of people pointing to a group of planets. They take this as proof (to them at least), that we were visited by aliens at different times in our history. And that they wanted us to go to them on their planet. (Really? Is that the first thing that comes to mind?)
The Weyland corporation then sponsors them to go to this planet. The group consists of a company representative played by Charlize Theron, the ship's crew, the two scientists, some other scientists, some security personnel and an android. The android has a disturbing fascination with Lawrence of Arabia and spends time on the ship, while the human crew are in stasis, watching the movie and dying his hair blonde. Lawrence of Arabia is not a great choice for an android to be taking lessons from. The main character is manipulative and rather unstable. Two traits you don't really want in a robot.
They reach the planet and find a hill with a landing strip that they think holds the key to the identity of these aliens. Then the movie gets out of hand. The scientists, in the spirit of Christmas, go headlong into the hill, exploring it's caves. They are giddy as children with a new gift and as reckless.
They make more discoveries that lead to more questions. Things start to go wrong and they discover that they are not alone. Not alone on the ship and not alone on the planet. Some of the crew get infected and all hell breaks loose. The movie then moves from science fiction to more action and horror elements.
Prometheus has everything going for it. A great cast, a good premise, huge budget, a good director and a strong interests from an existing fan-base. So it's not hard to expect great things from it. The movie is good but unfortunately, not great. It'll keep you talking and thinking when the movies ends but not for the right reasons. The movie does not live to it's full potential and having everything going for it makes it harder to swallow.
The cast were underutilized. Not quite up to the level of Clash of the Titans but the movie does have Charlize Theron just standing and glaring for the most of it. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender do the hard lifting in the acting department and scenes where they are the important ones in the movie. Like the what the Weyland Corp. did in the movie, the producers could have just hired a generic support crew.
The movie has an epic quality to it. Definitely, a huge chunk of the budget is on-screen. But it is more so when it comes to size. Everything is scaled to make the humans look small. Huge hill/mound in a valley surrounded by towering mountains. Enormous sandstorms. The fact is, the aliens are quite big. You can see that even in the original Alien movie. The Space Jockey was a giant. The message here I think is clear: Humans are not the biggest beings in the universe. Now behave like it.
I also made the epic mistake of watching the trailer despite having understood the hidden code of trailer makers. I enjoyed the movie less because I watched the trailer. If you want to enjoy this movie, don't watch the trailer or forget what you saw.The cast were underutilized. Not quite up to the level of Clash of the Titans but the movie does have Charlize Theron just standing and glaring for the most of it. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender do the hard lifting in the acting department and scenes where they are the important ones in the movie. Like the what the Weyland Corp. did in the movie, the producers could have just hired a generic support crew.
The movie has an epic quality to it. Definitely, a huge chunk of the budget is on-screen. But it is more so when it comes to size. Everything is scaled to make the humans look small. Huge hill/mound in a valley surrounded by towering mountains. Enormous sandstorms. The fact is, the aliens are quite big. You can see that even in the original Alien movie. The Space Jockey was a giant. The message here I think is clear: Humans are not the biggest beings in the universe. Now behave like it.
Having said all that, this movie is still quite good. Come to it with no expectations and you will not be disappointed.
SPOILER
There are two things that bothered me watching the movie. The Android character David and plot problems. First, the plot. I love Sci-Fi but don't care for horror. I still watch both so I know how each type of movie works. The first half of the movie is Sci-fi while the second half is a horror movie. The horror movie concepts are all there, complete with the logic ("there is something crazy going on here, let's split up"), the characters who suddenly loose IQ points by the minute (the geologist who creates a map for the caves but get lost in it nonetheless) and plot holes large enough to fly the Nostromo through (the ship's captain not knowing the geologist split up from the main group but know exactly where they are later). And how do you react to an alien being that stand up from black much like a cobra? Go and try to pet it?
I have a big problem with David the Android. It was clear that the rest of the crew were giving it as much leeway as they would a dog. He would go around doing all sorts of dubious things and the reaction that he would get is indifference or just a stern look. The crew had no problems with it going around in the alien caves, pressing all sorts of buttons. He did stuff without asking or offering explanations afterwards. The Charlize Theron character was the hardest on him but only because she thought her father was going to bequeath the empire to a toaster. The crew probably never questioned his intentions because he was a machine. You turn off machine that is giving you trouble. Well, Dave should have had his head blown off by one of the crew inside the cave, which was ok because they could screw it back on later.
I'm not sure that what I am about to say is a spoiler or not. It's a spoiler only once I tell it. Which shouldn't be the case since this sort of a prequel to Alien. How can you spoil it when we know what happens next because we've all seen the next movie? You can spoil it because we haven't seen the next movie yet. Director Ridley Scott already said as much in various interviews when he said that Prometheus isn't an Alien prequel. And that the next movie will be about where the Engineers came from. So what's this movie about, then? That's the spoiler: this movie is an Alien reboot. Only they don't want to say so. That would upset the loyal fans. The low batting average of franchise reboots recently (21 Jump Street, anyone?) also makes the term toxic. This reboot is interesting because it will create a franchise in another direction than the Alien movies. The basic elements of the Alien mythology are there but slightly different. I am waiting to see whether this is is a good thing.
Update: A possible explanation as to the events in the movie.
I have a big problem with David the Android. It was clear that the rest of the crew were giving it as much leeway as they would a dog. He would go around doing all sorts of dubious things and the reaction that he would get is indifference or just a stern look. The crew had no problems with it going around in the alien caves, pressing all sorts of buttons. He did stuff without asking or offering explanations afterwards. The Charlize Theron character was the hardest on him but only because she thought her father was going to bequeath the empire to a toaster. The crew probably never questioned his intentions because he was a machine. You turn off machine that is giving you trouble. Well, Dave should have had his head blown off by one of the crew inside the cave, which was ok because they could screw it back on later.
I'm not sure that what I am about to say is a spoiler or not. It's a spoiler only once I tell it. Which shouldn't be the case since this sort of a prequel to Alien. How can you spoil it when we know what happens next because we've all seen the next movie? You can spoil it because we haven't seen the next movie yet. Director Ridley Scott already said as much in various interviews when he said that Prometheus isn't an Alien prequel. And that the next movie will be about where the Engineers came from. So what's this movie about, then? That's the spoiler: this movie is an Alien reboot. Only they don't want to say so. That would upset the loyal fans. The low batting average of franchise reboots recently (21 Jump Street, anyone?) also makes the term toxic. This reboot is interesting because it will create a franchise in another direction than the Alien movies. The basic elements of the Alien mythology are there but slightly different. I am waiting to see whether this is is a good thing.
Update: A possible explanation as to the events in the movie.
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