It’s been 33 years since Ridley Scott’s Alien, a film which has since gone on to become a classic and is widely regarded as one of sci-fi’s masterpieces. Written as a kind of prequel, Prometheus inhabits the same universe as the original film.
In 2089, archeologist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace, the original ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’) and her boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Greene) unearth a series of cave paintings from remote locations throughout the globe, Shaw registers a remarkable pattern that the uncannily similar markings point both to humanity’s extraterrestrial origin and an invitation to a reunion between humans and their ”Engineers”. They take their findings to the ageing tycoon Peter Weyland, who agrees to facilitate the scientists’ journey to stars, giving them a small team and the mission said to cost a trillion dollars.
Their ship, Prometheus, named after the Greek God that was punished for stealing fire and giving it to mortals, takes them to a planet where they believe they’ll find the creators of Man. Once they land and start to discover the nearby tunnels of the Earth-like planet, they will be surprised with what they find: humanoid-like species that are apparently extinct. Along with the humanoids, however, they will uncover other things that shouldn’t be uncovered leading them to realize that the place they’re at is not what it promised to be.
Prometheus is at its strongest during it’s first hour, raising many questions, and is full of mystery. It represents some of the strongest and most intelligent sci-fi I’ve seen at the cinema in quite some time. It was going good till Scott went back to his roots and started to inject horror into the narrative, which subsequently erased all of the intellectual mystery of the initial scenes. The narrative gets so sloppy on more than one occasion, characters who initially appear intelligent, soon make dumb decisions that turns them into “collateral damage” just so the story can turn towards a scary direction you might find in a horror movie
In Prometheus, Scott creates a world like no other, with the help of excellent FX and 3D and his brilliant craftmanship. Particularly eye-catching are the holographic scenes, which use an inventive dotted effect to make the most of the 3rd dimesion.
Other than THAT surgical scene, Fassbender is the standout, with a remarkably controlled performance as the facially emotion-free robot with a hidden agenda. Filled with jealousy, and secret contempt for the human race who he believes he is actually more superior than, Fassbender plays every moment with riveting stillness. By contrast, Rapace is a bundle of barely suppressed emotions, unable to control her reactions to everything that happens to her. Theron is steely and nasty as the voice of the evil corporation, while Elba and Marshall-Green get to ooze sexuality in their pressure-releasing roles.
While Noomi Rapace is no Sigourney Weaver, she does well as torchbearer for this saga, determined, faithful with a high pain threshold, both physically and emotionally. Shaw wants to be a mother and derives great pain in her inability to conceive. Which makes her frantic self-guided surgery at the climax of the film all the more traumatic. Shaw’s journey is an excruciating one, but one I am convinced will not be in vain.
With questions still unanswered and so much lost, she’s an explorer..and given the resolution of the narrative, she just might get get her answers after all.
Director: Ridley Scott
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron
Runtime: 124 mins
Cert: 15
Enjoy the trailer
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Filed under: Action, Actor, Hollywood Blockbuster, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller Tagged: alien, black substance, charlize theron, dragon tattoo, faith, guy pearce, humanoid, idris elba, infection, logan marshall, logan marshall-green, love, michael fassbender, noomi rapace, oscars, prometheus, ridley scott, ship prometheus, space, spaceship
