Prometheus (2012)

Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Release Date: June 8, 2012

My Rating:  
(Click here for more info on my rating scale)


Prometheus is an okay movie overall.  It has several flaws, and it's a bit stupid in areas, but it's pretty interesting and thought-provoking.  And it's a good film to be seen in the theater, on the big screen.

Ridley Scott has returned to the science fiction genre and the Alien universe with Prometheus, which I finally saw in the theater today.  The initial opening shots of Prometheus show landscape shots, during the opening credits.  The land is completely lifeless, but there is water.  Then we see an alien spacecraft, and a humanoid alien nearby standing near the top of a waterfall.  The humanoid consumes a substance which causes its body to disintegrate and fall into the nearby waterfall.  This is immediately followed by images of red blood cells, which is then followed by shots of DNA strands, during which the title starts to appear in a similar way in which the title in Alien appeared.  This is a pretty good opening sequence, it sets the tone of the movie, and it already poses some questions.

Most of the story takes place during the final weeks of the year 2093.  The space vessel Prometheus is traveling through space to a planet in a system in orbit around a sun-like star.  This system was pointed at by several archeological findings, which may be a clue to the origin of mankind.  The ship is very near it's destination, and the 17-man crew awakens from hypersleep, except for an android named David who has been awake.  They arrive at the planet they are heading to.  It appears to be desolate.  But then they notice straight lines on the ground, which could obviously not have been created by nature.  These lines lead to some sort of big structure.  Much of the movie takes place in this structure, and on the Prometheus.

The ship lands, and some of the crew are sent to check out the structure.  Inside it, they find a series of tunnels, some of them underground.  While exploring, it initially seems that there is nothing alive.  However, this soon changes.  Complications arise, the plot thickens, discoveries are made, etc...  There's quite a bit that goes on in Prometheus, much more to the story than I've already given.  However, I don't want to give anything more away.  In fact, I've probably already given a little too much away.

Prometheus is set in the Alien universe, and it it's a prequel to Ridley Scott's Alien.  And it has several obvious connections to it, which I won't reveal in my review.  However, Prometheus also works very well as a stand-alone.  It obviously leads on to the Alien movies, and does get things where they need to be for the events of the Alien movies.  Yet it also has its own story and it goes in its own directions.  Scott's 1979 Alien was strong on suspense, and it was essentially a sci-fi haunted house story, and very scary. Prometheus does have horror elements, and some similar elements to that of Alien, but unlike that movie, this movie also contains some other elements.  It doesn't lean more towards suspense, action, etc.  It has a mixture that balances these elements.  Also, and best of all, the movie is intellectually stimulating.  The movie contains many mysteries and questions.  As the movie progresses, some of these questions are answered, and some are left unanswered and open-ended.

That's not to say that Prometheus is perfect.  It does contain flaws.  Most of them concern the characters, which are pretty flat.  None of them are truly round characters, or even interesting.  I didn't really care much for them.  That's not to say that I didn't feel anything for the characters.  I did feel a little bit, but it was marginal.  None of the characters are particularly memorable.  Then again, the first Alien movie had the same type of characters (in terms of depth, etc.), but it did have Ellen Ripley, who is somewhat memorable.  Noomi Rapace's character, Elizabeth Shaw, like the other Prometheus characters, is somewhat flat and underdeveloped, but she's the most rounded and best character in the film, in my opinion.

There were even a few flawed lines of dialogue here and there.  Also, the movie is not very good in terms of acting and reacting; the actors' performances are not very good, and the characters make a lot of stupid decisions.  There are also some mystery-elements and other things in the story that should have been better, and the movie did feel a bit clumsy and a bit ridiculous in a few areas; some things here and there were a bit poorly paid off, etc.  The majority of the flaws, in my opinion, occur in the the third act of the film.  I might have given the film a three-and-a-half-star rating, or even a four-star rating, but unfortunately the flaws did drag it down somewhat.

However, despite these flaws, the movie, while not great or anything, is okay overall, in my opinion.  This film is not about character arcs or relationships, or a story arc, but rather the mysteries, which, to say the least, are quite interesting, and there are a few memorable images and concepts.  The visual and special effects are good, and they actually contribute somewhat to the overall tone and atmosphere of the film.  I saw this film in 2-D, but I can tell that it would have been a good experience in 3-D as well.  There is some pretty good interesting technology in the film.  And not just the technology, it has a lot of good sci-fi elements.  And of course, best of all, is the mystery and the questions, and the cleverly-left-incomplete story.  That's what really makes the movie worth watching.  It could have been better with better character development and more emotional involvement, but it's effective as it is.

Prometheus is an okay movie overall.  It has several flaws, and it's a bit stupid in areas, but it's pretty interesting and thought-provoking. And it's a good film to be seen in the theater, on the big screen.  Also the conclusion of the movie actually invites a sequel to be made.  It doesn't necessarily need one, as it's okay left as it is, but it wouldn't be a bad idea at all.  But if they do make a sequel, I hope they continue to follow the character Elizabeth Shaw, and it probably will.  While the premise for Alien is more or less set up, the sequel should, and probably will, take this other direction; remember, while it's a prequel to Alien, it's also it's own thing.  And if they bring more depth into it (like James Cameron did in Aliens) in addition to the interesting mysteries and whatnot, I'm sure it would be a pretty good movie.



Cast and Credits:
Elizabeth Shaw: Noomi Rapace
David: Michael Fassbender
Charlie Holloway: Logan Marshall-Green
Meredith: Charlize Theron
Janek: Idris Alba

Twentieth Century Fox Presents
A film directed by Ridley Scott
Running time: 125 min.

Rated R for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language