PROMETEUS Review

PROMETHEUS Review

By Darin Skaggs

Ridley Scott’s Prometheus has been marketed as a prequel to another one of Scott’s films, the 1979 classic Alien.  Not really.  It might have something to do with Alien, but it is not a direct prequel to the film.  It is its own film and a pretty good one at that.

     The film’s focus is on a space mission that is sent to a set of stars in the universe that matches several drawings that are found on earth.  They believe that this is the area of the universe where the creatures that created us are. 

     Confused? So am I and I saw the film.  Most of the film is confusing.  There is a ton of unanswered questions and unexplained events that come up.  With a movie with all these plot holes and confusion it could turn off a viewer of this film.  Still, I found this film thrilling and entertaining.  There are many questions asked that interested me and many scenes that are horrific but still fun to watch.

     One of the best parts of the film is the set pieces and the special effects.  This is a science fiction film with futuristic sets and space ships.  They all look great in this film.  There were a few moments in which I thought it was dazzling and beautiful but there were other parts where some sets looked like they were used.  Scott creates a great world and makes you feel like you’re really there.

     One of the main problems that I’ve heard from others is that the characters are not really developed well.  I happen to agree with that these characters are just there to move the plot ahead and reveal information to other characters.  The only few characters that you care for or have a story is the main character Elizabeth Shaw and David, the man made robot. 

     The character’s problem could be blamed by the writing but I would also set blame to the acting.  Michael Fassbender, who plays David in the film, does a great job as well as Noomi Rapace as Shaw.  The rest of the cast members do a okay job, some more than others.  However, the worst performance in the film comes from Charlize Theron.  This upset me because Theron stared in my favorite film of last year, Young Adult.  Her performance in that film was fantastic, but in this film it felt like she was just phoning it in. 

     This film’s writing is a bit of a problem as well.  Like I said the characters were not development and to add to that, the dialogue wasn’t the best.  Plus the writing had many flaw in the plot.  There were so many confusing things that happen that were not explained.  At one point a character poisons another; we never get a motive, we never know if the character knew what they were doing was going to hurt the other character.  There are a lot of other things that happen that have no explanation.  Like I said the film asks many questions that we as humans ask ourselves.  Where do we come from?  Why are we here on Earth?  These questions are not fully answered, but it tries to examine them and how far we would go to find them.  This is why the film works for me and what draws me to it.

     This is a film that tries to examine our humanity, but it also becomes somewhat a thriller.  There are several scenes where there are impressive action sequences and a few more that drift toward the horror genre.  There is one scene involving Shaw that is a throwback to Alien while still being a great scene on its own.

     Near the end of the film I knew I was on board with what I just watched.  The remaining characters have a conversation and go about their way.  It was a great ending to a good film.  Fade to black.  Then, without getting into spoilers, another scene happens.  It was weird and way off from the tone from the rest of the film.  It seemed to only be there to connect this film with the Alien series even though it so much different than what I thought the rest of the film was trying to bring.

     This film is kind of a mess, but I still found it entertaining.  It was beautiful to look at, had me paying attention the whole time and made me think of my own existence.  It is not an amazing achievement, but it is a really good film.