Prometheus

Prometheus 

Director: Ridley Scott.

Written By: Jon Spaihts & Damon Lindelof. 

Photography: Dariusz Wolski.

Staring: Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce. 

Year: 2012.

Country: USA.   

 30 years after the release of Blade Runner, Ridley Scott makes a return to Science Fiction, and to a familiar franchise. Prometheus is set in the Alien universe about 40 years before the events of the first movie. And is in many ways, a prequel. But it's not an Alien movie. There are no Xenomorphs in this fim regrettably. 

  Instead we get a new humanoid race, only referred to as The Engineers. Who the crew of the Prometheus believe may be able to tell us something about our past.      

  Ridley Scott, the director of the first Alien movie back in '79 returns for Prometheus, although there are some scenes that feel like the reins have been handed back to Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Damon Lindelof, of Lost fame, is one of two writers and we're also treated to an all-star cast. Man of the year, Michael Fassbender adds another sterling performance to his CV, channelling Peter O'Toole as a synthetic. Though as good as he is, he hasn't got shit on Lance Henriksen. Guy Pearce is in there, unrecognisably, as a ninety-something Peter Weyland. Not much can be said for Charlize Theron, she gives a sturdy performance, nothing spectacular. For me the show was stolen by Noomi Rapace. A lot of buzz was generated around her for 'The Girl Who...'  trilogy which I haven't seen yet. This is the first I've seen of her, I was impressed. Even if her accent did occasionally slip through.             

  I appreciate the boldness of Prometheus, it takes of big themes and questions especially around the origin of life and faith. I also picked up what I thought were warnings about climate change and nuclear armament. But that may have been me looking in to deep. Of course Sci-Fi has never shy about topics like such. Prometheus doesn't really explore anything that 2001, Solyaris or Star Trek V don't. Even way back in 1951, The Day The Earth Stood Still is a film warning against the disasters The Cold War could bring.   

 Some of the things in Prometheus, to put it bluntly, don't make sense. And I'm not talking about deliberate ambiguity, the screenplay is just incoherent at points. But it is a Ridley Scott film, so it will have a director's cut or three, which hopefully will make things a bit clearer.    

  If you were hoping Prometheus would be lots of  grand setpieces, then you're in luck, because there are plenty. And great ones too.  The scares are there, but they are few and far between, and you don't get the claustrophobic feel you got with the first film. This is New Ridley Scott - the directer of historical epics. 

 The cinematography in Prometheus is breathtaking. So is some of the CGI, but I'm old-school and no computer generated image can live up to the model Nostromo from Alien. 

  The Prometheus holds a crew of 17, having this many characters and having the movie start with them waking from cryo-gen having not met means you don't get any banter between the crew. You can also tell that these members are marked for death as most of them are typical horror movie morons straight out of a Friday the 13th Sequel.     

 Prometheus has a lot of flaws,but it's a big movie that asks big questions. Anything that big doomed to have flaws. Overall it's an enjoyable movie filled with thrills and subtle references for sci-fi die-hards to spot. It's a good films, but I think I;ll wait for the Director's Cut before I buy the Blu-Ray.