After much unbridled anticipation, Ridley Scott's much talked about and most exciting cinematic project for years finally comes to our screens. If someone wrote up a list of most exciting prospects for this years cinematic viewing, Prometheus places very high. In fact in most peoples opinions this was the film they were most excited about, above Dark Knight Rises and even The Hobbit! Having been originally announced as a prequel to Alien, we were told to reign in our expectations as the film would be set in the same universe, but have only tangible links to he acid blooded xenomorphs and absolutely nothing to do with Ripley.
It is saddening to see though that all this non linking to Alien was a bare faced lie, but for the very wrong reasons. Sure there are many elements of the film that completely separate it from Alien. For instance we are traded a run down ship with a ramshackle crew for a top of line space hopper with a crew of scientists. It's unfortunate though that efforts are made to point out that some of the crew are rather more human and down to earth than others, but it feels like a forced commitment rather than a natural part of the script. We are not on LV 426, this is a different planet, and this is immediately where I started to question the direction of the film. A different planet, with "scientists" going to investigate where we came from. There's the cyborg, the woman eager to discover a new world, a crew of dispensable and frankly idiotic characters, a rough roguish pilot and an overseer with an ulterior motive. The crew land on a planet, throw all caution literally to the wind and explore this unexplored planet like children in a play park. They discover dead aliens and a room full of vases and dun dun duuuuh, everything goes to hell.
This would all be extremely interesting if we had some involvement with the characters at stake. The problem is there are so many ideas being shoe horned into the script that ironically enough the only character that gets decent exposure is the cyborg, Dave. As far as the rest of our cast are concerned we really couldn't care, each one of them falls because of their own ridiculous stupidity. Sure there's idea that this is a fascinating new world may be overcoming their senses, but seriously, no human gets playful with something that resembles a vicious snake. There's no room for any kind of suspense or growing threat, because there is never a sense that these people can't just up and leave at a seconds notice. It all just becomes shock tactics. These people have traveled so long to be here and under the order of someone probably doesn't care if they live or die, the problem is neither do we.
It's hard to stand back and be even handed here because you'd expect someone like Ridley Scott to instill these subtle undertones that highlight the plight of the characters, or to bring a sense of realism to a situation that, dare I say it, seems alien to us. But none of this appears present, the only thing we are relentlessly beaten around the head with is this idea of God and religion, but it holds no weight. Our main character played by Noomi Rapace reconciles with the idea of God during the ordeal after she believes she has found our real creators, but that's about it. The rest seems to be some poor attempt at shadowing how Ellen Ripley became such a strong and focused heroine.
Sure enough the visuals are entertaining, but at every step I still remain confused. There are films that take some unraveling and after a viewing or two you realise they hint at something throughout that you're not immediately aware of. However Prometheus isn't that kind of film. and for some reason people seem to defend it due to this fact, and the worst thing they do is stand by one particular truth; there will more than likely be another and it will explain away everything we've witnessed. As a cinematic obsessive I disagree with this idea whole heatedly. Every film . . . no matter how tied to franchise they are . . . should make sense and be based on it's own merits as a work of good story telling, and this one I'm sorry to say does not.
There are redeeming features such as Michael Fassbender as Dave who shines throughout and Noomi Rapace does a sterling job in her role. The visuals are naturally amazing, this is Ridley after all and the set pieces are realistic and in a number of cases entertaining. There's a visceral quality to parts of the film, especially in one scene that has become "that scene" to anyone who's seen it. The main focus plot wise is well founded but is completely ruined by having to link it with Alien in my opinion, as soon as I begin to point out the positives I can't help be defer to the main problem. This has been set up as a franchise based within a franchise and has fallen victim to the Star Wars effect. A prequel with ties to the originals that features characters and scenarios we couldn't give a shit about. Sound familiar? Yeah, thought so. Come on Ridley if you're going to do a "New Sci-Fi" then don't fob us off with some Alien linked mess that clearly had a lot of control from the mighty Twentieth Century Fox.
★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
