Prometheus

Prometheus
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Cast: Noomi Rapace as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw
          Michael Fassbender as David
          Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers
          Idris Elba as Janek
Rated R
Seen: June 17, 2012

As has been the popular saying by critics lately, Prometheus marks the return of Ridley Scott to a genre he defined. Different, but not so much, from Scott’s 1980’s Alien franchise, Prometheus focuses on a group of scientists journeying into space in the hopes of finding the creators of the human race; engineers as they like to call them. However, seeing as how Ridley Scott already defined this genre once, will he be able to do it again?

What I Liked

The main thing that I liked about Prometheus was its reliance on the actors instead of effects or foreign creatures. As a result, the actors are up to the task and deliver incredible performances across the board, bringing characters to life in a way that is almost artistic.

The most obvious example here is Michael Fassbender who plays David, the Android. I believe his portrayal is Oscar worthy and that’s really the only reason I mention him here.

That’s not to say that aliens and foreign creatures are missing. This is Ridley Scott, after all. The “engineers” are awesome, a great display of a “more evolved” human race. Certain other creatures that make an appearance are also impressive, keeping Prometheus as creepy and shocking as one could want it to be.

What I Didn’t Like

Prometheus was nothing new. The idea of space exploration has been done before and adding a conflicting view of spirituality to it does nothing to make it original. If anything, the spiritual elements just made it annoying, as characters couldn’t quite seem to make up their mind about what exactly they believed. 

On top of that, being set in the Alien universe (*SPOILER ALERT* this is totally an Alien prequel) took a lot of ground away from what Prometheus could have been as a stand-alone movie.  This lost ground was made even more evident by the set up for a sequel that was featured at the end.

Don’t get me wrong, the fact that it was an Alien prequel doesn’t make it bad; it just keeps it from being incredible. This is mainly due to the fact that you spend most of the movie trying to tie the franchises together, distracting you from the movie itself. The prequel element also requires there to be a lot of similar technology and such to the original Alien movies and prevents Scott from “redefining” anything as many hoped he would do. In order for Prometheus to be incredible, it would have needed to focus more on itself than the other movies.

Final Thoughts

Once again, I really liked this movie and thought it was great. I just feel that it could have been a lot better had it avoided tying itself to Scott’s previous movies. This kept it from redefining and being original and just left another Alien movie in the theaters about 25 years too late. 

When Should You See It? 
If you enjoy theater experiences, his is definitely one that you wont want to miss, especially if you can see it in IMAX. Otherwise, seeing it on DVD makes no difference than watching the regular version in a theater.


Personal Rating: 7 of 10
Plot: 6 of 10
Sexuality/Sensuality: 2 of 10
Spiritual Aspects: 6 of 10
Drugs/Alcohol: 3 of 10