Hailed as Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi and anticipated as a new masterwork of horror, Prometheus falls a little shy of expectations. The intense film satisfies the Alien fan's need for suspense, deadly creatures, and human maiming, but not in exposition. The characters are archetypes built from the original cast but aren't overly derivative and the story expands the mythology. Like most prequels, the failings are in the details. There are the unfortunate continuity errors and some of the plot points are poorly connected or unexplained. Bottom line, the film gets the blood pumping and the stomach churning, but it doesn't fully gap the missing information of Alien or even itself.
There's a clear combination of the brilliant direction of
Ridley Scott, and the adrenaline filled, yet plot-hole ridden writing of Damon
Lindelof. Scott brings in nice visual allusions and an intimidating
production design. Lindelof has strength in his characters and good control
of his themes (especially parentage and faith), but he's all thumbs when tying the details together (carryovers from Lost). Many
of the films plot movements come from erratic sources in order to move
forward. (The creature that kills the first crew member runs away and is never seen again). That said, when things get tense, the audience forgets
those details for a bit; keep an eye out for a surgery scene that puts
all the chest-bursting scenes to shame.
There are many subtle nods and references to ground the film in the Alien universe. Elizabeth Shaw is cut from a similar mold as Ellen Ripley, but her trials and tribulations are different enough to stand her apart. The other characters are basic archetypes seen in horror films, such as the jerk, the corporate tool, the brave captain, and of course, the robot. A few manage to stand out by their performances and some tiny acts of humanity seen between them, but there is a large number of auxiliary characters that are essentially faceless fodder. Most of the similarities between Prometheus and the Alien films are drawn around Shaw specifically. A sharp eye will notice several lines of dialogue and character developments that parallel the first three Alien films.
Prometheus certainly isn't an Alien movie. It's not even a monster movie. It's more of a 'dangerous planet' movie. Most of the threats the crew face are unrelated to each other. Some of them don't even have proper exposition. Those biologists who scoffed at the universal parasitism of the Aliens likely feel mind raped by the creature evolution in this film. For my part, I truly hope this film is not intended as some sort of Alien origin story, at least not a complete one. It's one of those cases where the science goes for shock and fear factor rather than logical sense. That said, the story is clearly unfinished, so there is an opportunity to save itself in future installments.
Thankfully the film doesn't conflict with the Predator franchise at all, and if some brave filmmaker is willing to propose it, there's an opportunity to explore a relationship between the Predators and the Space Jockeys (or as they're called in the film, the Engineers). With the story diverging from Alien line, there's plenty of room to expand the universe further, with hopefully a stronger grasp over expository details. Without a sequel, this film just stands as a weak prologue that satisfies a basic horror fan, but disappoints, if not confounds, an Alien fan.
Rating: B
Good scare value, cinematography, and production design, with nice references to previous films. Loses points from the various plot holes and rather desperate plea for a sequel.
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