Prometheus Review

30th May 2012

Ridley Scott returns to sci-fi with this hugely anticipated film. The word started over a decade ago when Scott expressed ideas and eventual interest in returning to the Alien property. The anticipation rose to fever pitch when the promotional campaign started for the film. Finally now – Prometheus is here and the verdict is…

We’ll get to that. Prometheus sees a scientific expedition spend a couple of years in hypersleep in space to reach a destination that has been pointed out to them by archeological digs across the world. It seems almost every historical civilisation has the same map ready for us to go find our makers! What this motley crew find there is another beast entirely.

Well straight away we should say that anyone expecting this to be a film that connects it’s end to the start of Alien should probably trash that idea right now. This film does not connect to Alien. Well it does and it doesn’t. As you may have seen by the trailer campaign – it includes the space jockey race and their technology which ties to the franchise. There is also a moment in the last minute or so of the film (almost added as an afterthought it seems) with something else that also connects to the franchise. But the logic of it has yet to be explained – especially in how it would tie to the 1979 film.

But this is the thing about Prometheus – it asks more questions than it answers. But then this is what we have come to expect from the writer of Lost. Sadly Damon Lindelof has also carried the baggage of how frustrating that can be for an audience.

Characters enter the screen with an air of mystery about them. Some are given a bit of background information in a couple of made for TV dramatic sequences. Others we get very little explanation. Clearly the most interesting character on screen is Michael Fassbender’s David. A character who is literally the catalyst of everything to come. And yet we never really find out why, or even where his loyalty lays right up to the end.

The narrative feels quite segmented and loose ends are not really attended to by the characters. (Did no-one seriously think to go investigate the lab after the pretty vicious C-Section sequence?). The middle also forces us to sit down from time to time and listen to characters develop before our eyes when really all we want to do is crack on with the tension. The film seemed pretty happy to get us there quick enough only to sag in the middle.

What does earn points is the design and look for the film. Scott is back on top form in this respect. The 3D aids a few sequences and thankfully isn’t too dark as we have come to expect. The music score is nothing to write home about when compared to the rest of the franchise, or even the trailers for that matter. But it serves the film well enough when called upon to do so. But you may have trouble recognising it should you listen to it solo.

Fassbender may get the best role, but Noomi Rapace really does solidify herself as a leading lady and a very likeable presence, even when playing a deeply flawed character. Idris Elba suffers from having very little to do except hang out on the command centre, Guy Pearce suffers from heavy make-up and having very little screen time in which to develop himself as a viable presence; but Charlize Theron is probably the one who suffers the most. She starts with great potential, and has some great moments and does the best job she can, but is robbed towards the end of the film from having much to do with anything.

Speaking of the end… Things do go to another plateau all together in the race for the finish line. A second viewing may well be required just to make sense of why anyone is doing what they are doing and what they expect to get out of it. Expect bizarre, expect frowns, expect the best Godzilla vs Mothra type beast fight you have seen since the 50’s!

If ties are to be made explicit to Alien – then a sequel will be required, and yes the door is left wide open for that to happen!

In the end Prometheus should have been made as a completely different venture with no ties to the Xenomorph films that follow it. On its own merits it has a few good B-movie thrills with people exploring strange and dark caves only to come under attack and infection. In this regard it works well enough, but is hardly a classic.