Prometheus

I think this serves as a pretty decent stand alone sci fi. I like quite a lot about this movie. The cast is good. Noomi Rapace in particular is very good.

I like the idea of the engineers, I like the idea of the black goo, I mostly like the idea that this all spawns the xenomorphs we know and love but I don't really understand why.

Not everything needs an origin story and I preferred Alien when we just thought they were out there somewhere. I don't think we needed an origin/backstory/genesis story.

Take out the final scenes which, if I'm honest, felt a little forced, and Prometheus would still have been a fairly decent sci fi.

And most notably, Prometheus does teach us not to run in a straight line.

It's good to see that Ridley Scott still has the same vision for stylistic sets and atmospheric lighting.Lots of dripping water and eery shadows as one might expect from the old master. The special effects are impressive, the CGI is great, the technology is plausible for the turn of the next century. But - and I'm afraid it's a big but - the plot is disjointed, the characters two dimensional and the script is, well, not the best. Far too many things happen which simply make no sense at all, or just don't tally with "what we know already" about the Alien universe. Far too many plot mechanisms, bits of tech and even shots and scenes are borrowed from other films - Serenity, independence day, The Mummy, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Pitch Black, X- Files. I won't go into detail because I can't do that without using spoilers, but try it yourself. Watch the film and see how many ripped off bits you can spot. Spectacular, yes. A great film? No. sadly not.

Don't get me wrong. It's gorgeous to look at, and I'm definitely going to go and see it again. It's really impressive.

But... It's stuffed with scenes without any payoff. Again and again it sets stuff up and then just... walks away from it.

In at least one unforgivably stupid scene, someone *literally* just walks away from an antagonist and leaves it there. And then doesn't tell anyone about it. Some of it's really effective. There are some scenes that are absolutely gripping. But so much of it doesn't make any sense...

Having said all that I think it's very clear that what I just saw was Prometheus part 1. It's very definitely supposed to have a sequel and I will certainly go to see the sequel. I think both movies taken together might score a 10.

But this movie by itself doesn't.

It is hard to say too much about Prometheus without spoiling it. First of all, those expecting to see the original Aliens are not seeing this movie for all the right reasons. Yes, it is part of the Alien universe and set before the first movie, but it doesn't feature those Aliens and instead tells a brand new story of merging the two worlds together.

With Ridley Scott back to directing, Prometheus used the similar setup of making researchers explore an alien world, only this time there is a longer setup and more suspense driven to events unfolding. The ship in this movie is very reminiscent of the one in Alien, although it is different in design and has some new interesting gadgets and pieces of technology we haven't seen before. There's no denying that there are things people will pick up relating to Alien, and I'm really glad they didn't tone down the violence for 12/PG-13 rated audiences. Either way, you can watch Prometheus first before the other Alien movies.

On the acting side of things, I found Michael Fassbender's Android character David to be the standout for the movie. I also liked the protagonist Noomi Rapace and the supporting cast of Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba. All strong performances, but perhaps if there's only one small complaint I could think of, is that maybe the supporting characters didn't get enough development time. Thankfully, Scott and the team keep the movie going at a very good pace with emotional depth at the right moments.

Overall, Prometheus on first viewing was what I expected, a movie using it's original base movie Alien as a structure to produce a new story with new characters/lifeforms to lead up to other Alien story lines. It is highly likely the references will become more obvious in sequels to this, but Prometheus manages to bring a story that works as a standalone but also a prequel at the same time, which is good for all viewing audiences, and I think Scott was trying to bring the grisly/dark atmosphere movies of Alien without being too in your face, which I thought was the right direction for this movie.

Prometheus is an eminently rewatchable film that provides new layers of meaning with each repeat visit. How often does a master filmmaker get to revisit their original oeuvre and recreate an even bigger world around and about it? The myth of the engineers and their world changing experimentation is absolutely romantic, compelling and terrifying at the same time. It hurts even more to see how badly utilized this new mythos was in the follow up Covenant. The true mark of success that Ridley Scott achieved was igniting years of debate around the origin and nature of the engineers and their creations. Deep connections to established historical finds on earth make this origin story even more personal - the myth of alien astronauts, benevolent or cruel giants from the stars with incredible, magical technology - creators and destroyers of worlds. Getting back to the film itself - such gorgeous cinematography and production values. I recently rewatched in 4k format and developed a greater appreciation for small clues hitherto unseen - for example navigation hologram destinations in a reactivated ship of mass destruction. David is himself a conundrum and a polarizing figure. Was his programming to blame, or the algorithmic output of his treatment at the hand of cruel masters. The android is a central theme in the alien mythos, an expression of creation and self awareness. The only criticism I have of Prometheus and the sequel Covenant is the proliferation of human stupidity. Predecessor films did not showcase human hubris and blundering to such a great extent - protagonists always took calculated risks. If anything the buffoonery of crews almost seems to justify their fate and reduces sympathy accordingly. Ridley Scott may still have time to catapult his mythos to legendarium, if his subsequent sequels after Covenant retain purity of spirit with his expanded universe. I for one look forward to seeing more of this wondrous unravelling and exposition.