It’s debatable whether or not Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is a prequel to the Alien series—for fans, it may be close enough, while for other viewers, enjoyable as-is. Set in the 2090s, a group of scientists in Scotland (including Noomi Rapace as Dr. Elizabeth Shaw) discover cave drawings indicating life in space, or the “engineers” of humankind, and journey into the depths of the universe to find them—religion is an ongoing theme throughout. It’s easy to over-use CGI, but Prometheus is a textbook example of how to effectively absorb an audience into a world where space travel and aliens not only make sense, look believable. Until its last half hour, the story is interesting and well paced, but with too many secondary characters and utilitarian dialogue (though, Michael Fassbender makes an excellent robot). Unfortunately, Scott rushes into a slap-dash finale that lacks the drama it deserves, but, despite this, Prometheus makes for worthwhile viewing.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2012.
Yes, an excellent film for the most part. A bit derivative of the original ‘Alien’ at times but that may have been on purpose. The storyline was fascinating. A bit of ‘Chariots of the Gods’ where ancients recorded stories of astronauts visiting Earth millennia ago giving mankind technology beyond his imagination. In the movie, the focus is on a theory that these astronauts actually bio-engineered humanity hence the journey of Prometheus to confirm this and meet their maker, so to speak.
Fassbender was a tremendously strong character in the movie as was Rapace. Hoping there’s a followup movie. We’ll see.