Rent Prometheus (2012)

A really mixed bag: great individual performances & visuals, but a meandering & drab script - Prometheus review by TB

The Alien universe has never again hit the acclaimed heights that it did in the 70’s/80’s and the ‘92 Alien3, although for many people this is a bone of contention. Despite the enormous amount of goodwill and fandom, Alien Resurrection was not great, despite the massive budget. And then when they started to combine the Aliens and the Predators in the AVP series, it was absolutely a case of diminishing returns and not great to begin with. 

Then Ridley Scott announced that he had come back to the franchise, with a script written by two veterans of the sci-fi genre, Jon Spaihts & Damon Lindelof. There was also an amazing cast, enormous budget and pretty much complete creative control (unlike the massive battles Scott had in Alien.) The general feeling was one of excitement. I was so excited about this that I even went to see it in IMAX. But there was one thing that I had seen Scott repeatedly say in interviews regarding this film: in no way was this a sequel to the Alien franchise. This was a continuation in that world and people shouldn’t look at this film as being in any way a sequel. Needless to say, an enormous number of people did not take that advice, although the film has other far greater problems. 

However, the film starts extremely well. The opening scenes of Michael Fassbender (David) walking around the ship alone and amusing himself, all whilst obsessing over Peter O’Toole and his performance in Laurence of Arabia, are without doubt the best part of the film. In 15 minutes we get a wonderful building of the character and the world. Then, as the ship approaches its destination and the other characters are brought out of hypersleep, we start to build up to something which looks promising. They leave the ship to investigate the world and then we wait for the proverbial to hit the fan…

And that’s where the problems start.

Prometheus cannot decide what it wants to be. It is a film which keeps cutting back and fourth between the ship and the planet, never settling on either location and what it wants to have happen there. The characters are also another major issue: there are far far too many of them. And any great potential performances are lost in the sheer number of actors on screen. For example, Kate Dickie is an outstanding actress, who whenever I have seen her in other films and especially bit parts, will be amazing. And here she stars as a scientist who has the barest of bones of a backstory but who could be something more. Her performance and anything which she was trying to give to the character is lost totally in the mishmash of direction and story. And the same goes for Sean Harris, who could have been so many things but just is turned into a hippie who also is obsessed with money…

The actual story itself as well is stupid in many ways. It takes the religious themes of belief and stretches them to ridiculous lengths. We are meant to accept on face value that a crazy billionaire becomes involved with a couple of archaeologists who despite their science backgrounds are devout religious individuals. He then pours the entirety of his wealth pretty much on going into space and to what is effectively a wild goose chase on a whim… not something that works very well under any type of scrutiny. 

And yet, strip back and suspend disbelief and actually there is a decent amount to be enjoyed here. It looks stunning, there are some great moments and the ending is also satisfyingly pulse-racing, even if you aren’t fully invested in the story. 

There is also one more reason for giving this film 3 stars: it is significantly better than its sequel Alien: Covenant. Now THAT is a terrible film.

Could have been such a better prequel! - Prometheus review by DJ

I read somewhere that originally this script was written with a much stronger linked ending in the movie Alien but Ridley Scott didn't want to go over old ground again ("it's what the viewers would want!") but personally this should have been linked more to Alien and then Aliens. This movie is at it's weakest in the direction it went in after being rewritten that it's the prequel to us as humans. The origin of our species, not the alien species. Where did we come from? Is there a God? This movie is simply not intelligent enough for the deep philosophizing it does. It's at it's weakest in those parts and also the narrative and some of the acting related to this. There are even plot holes due to editing with crew members coming alive again, due to moving around the movie.

The movie is beautiful though with great special effects. Some of the main characters are fabulously portrayed, Elizabeth Shaw portrayed by Noomi Rapace is a really interesting lead protagonist. Just falls apart with the faith stuff (which they have to make really obvious) and the relationship with her boyfriend fails because he is cute but they just don't sell the relationship well enough. Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron and Idris Elba are excellent characters. Idris keeps his accent up the whole film! The rest of the actors are so so and you end up not really caring if they live or die which is a problem in this movie.

If you watch the movie several times, it becomes more endearing somehow. The first watch is just confusing as you try to follow the narrative. Without spoiling it, the movie does end with big hints or links to the Alien series. I liked this movie in the end but it could have been a lot better! I did like the character of Elizabeth Shaw and she could have been a new Ripley but was disappointed to read they don't continue with her very long in the next movie of the series. In fact I have read that Alien Covenant a lot worse than this one but that I still have to watch :) Worth a watch, does contain some horror and scenes that make you jump but not as good as Alien / Aliens ultimately.

Don't Listen to the Critics - This is Superb - Prometheus review by GI

Massively underrated yet a significant science fiction film, beautifully filmed and with a very intriguing, clever and intricate story. It is obviously a prequel to Alien (1979) but not a direct one and I'm guessing that die hard fans of the Alien franchise expected another chase film through dark corridors by the iconic monster and were disappointed when they got a film that attempts to delve into more involved themes. This is set 30 years before the events of Alien and the discovery on Earth of ancient cave paintings leads scientists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) to believe that an alien race somehow 'engineered' humanity into existence. Funded by the hugely rich and powerful Weyland-Yutani company a space mission sets off to find this race of 'engineers'. They find something much more sinister and frightening. Like many great scifi movies the film thematically attempts to deal with the origins of mankind, it's an attempt at working into the world of the Alien franchise some sense of meaning and complexity. For me it's flawed yet quite a wonderful film with so many clever twists and turns that it warrants repeated viewings. A central issue here is the role of the android David (Michael Fassbender) and his position in the hierarchy that includes the coldly domineering Vickers (Charlize Theron) and the very old, malevolent Weyland (Guy Pearce). Director Ridley Scott always wanted to look at an origin story for the Alien universe and he has really opened up the franchise to the extent that the original film and its two sequels gain a different sense of meaning. I urge anyone who was disappointed before to give this another go. It has some superb visual scenes and it's epic in structure but overall its a film that actually fits rather well into the story you know so well from the earlier films.