In 1979, Ridley Scott helmed 'Alien', a
sci-fi horror classic starring Sigourney Weaver as a member of a
spaceship crew that is sent to investigate a mysterious ship but ends
up bringing a terrifying creature on board their own ship. While the
film itself received rather mixed reviews when it first came out, it
has since been regarded as one of the best sci-fi films ever made.
Now, more than three decades after 'Alien', Scott returns to the
Alien franchise with Prometheus... sort of. Actually, despite what we
have seen from the trailers, Prometheus is not a direct prequel to
'Alien', even though it does take place in the same universe. It's
its own story, and shouldn't be compared to Alien because of it.
That, and this is one of the better sci-fi films I've seen in a long
time. Granted, the film doesn't answer all of its questions but it is
backed up by a rock-solid cast and breathtaking visuals, and is very
thrilling from beginning to end.
In the year 2089, archaeologists
Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan
Marshall-Green) discover a star map found amongst the remains of many
unrelated ancient cultures and the two deduce that this is an
invitation from their 'creators' to come find them. With financial
help from Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), the CEO of Weyland Industries,
the two join the crew of the ship Prometheus as it heads off to the
moon LV-223, where the star map lead to. Joined by the android David
(Michael Fassbender) and Weyland employee Meredith Vickers (Charlize
Theron), Shaw and Holloway look to find the answers to mankind's
origins, but instead discover what could threaten the entire human
race.
Prometheus is one very ambitious film,
but it really doesn't answer all of the questions it puts out there.
It never fully delves into the possibilities of how mankind came to
be, instead going a more predictable route when it comes to the
story. However, that's not really a bad thing because at the end of
the whole thing, it does leave you wanting more and it is still a
very smart sci-fi film, never doing anything too absurd or stupid.
The film's amazing visuals and grand scale leaves the viewer in
suspense from beginning to end and the questions that are left
unanswered will most likely be answered in a sequel. In fact, writer
Damon Lindelof directly stated that they did leave some elements of
the plot unresolved 'deliberately' and yet they did answer enough
questions in case a sequel wasn't going to happen. But unlike other
recent films (Wrath of the Titans and Men in Black 3 to name a few),
there is enough material here to warrant one.
Character development is also a bit
lacking in some areas, but I attest that more to the fact that
there's too many characters. After all, every film like this will of
course have some characters who are just there to be killed off but
the writers did a good job developing the main characters enough to
make them interesting. It also helps that this film has a excellent
cast because there is not a bad performance from anyone. The standout
is Michael Fassbender, who gives a chilling performance as David, who
is easily the most interesting character in the film. But the rest of
the cast does a fantastic job too, including Rapace, Marshall-Green,
Idris Elba as the ship's pilot Janek, and Theron.
Prometheus may be one of the most
anticipated films of the year, but so far many are saying that it is
rather disappointing. I would have to disagree with them for the most
part because this is a great sci-fi film that should not be compared
to Alien in any way. It's its own film and while it doesn't answer
every question, it is still very compelling, well-acted, and visually
stimulating. It's a film that will be one worth talking about for a
long time, even if they don't do a sequel. Easily Ridley Scott's best
film in a long time, it continues to cement his legacy as one of the
best directors in the history of film. Prometheus may not end up as
big of a classic as Alien, but it is certainly one of the best sci-fi
films in recent years.
Rating: 4.5/5
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