Prometheus Review

Those who remember their Ancient Greek legends will know that Prometheus was the name of the Titan that gave the gift of fire to humankind. This pissed off top-god Zeus, and for his troubles, Prometheus was chained up and an eagle ate out his liver, only for it to grow back ready to be eaten all over again every day forever. Those who like creation myths, stories about the relationship between strange beings and the human race and nasty things happening to people’s insides are probably going to thoroughly enjoy Ridley Scott’s long-awaited prequel to Alien.

As well as an unfortunate Titan and the film in question,Prometheus is also the name of the spaceship carrying Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron and others to a far distant planet, led by instructions left by the ancient civilisations of earth. On this desolate planet, they discover the ancient remnants of the ‘Space Jockey’ race that Sigourney Weaver discovered in the first Alien film. Then Very Bad Things start to happen.

If we accept that the first Alien film is strictly speaking of the horror genre, Aliens is an action movie, Alien³ a prison film andAlien: Resurrection is a bit of a mess, then Prometheus is perhaps the closest the series has gotten yet to proper science fiction. Alien’s familiar themes of body-horror and Freudian psycho-sexuality are recalibrated through Rapace’s scientist’s search for answers in a universe that may or may not be godless. Whilst less wonderfully ponderous, Prometheus at times evokes the existentialism of 2001 or Sunshine, but with added splatter. Other filmic nods include the excellent and curiously impressionist opening sequence which reminded me a little ofThe Seventh Seal and the standout scene of the film (which to avoid spoiling, I’ll refer simply to ‘Rapace taking matters into her own hands’) made me think of Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession.

The look of the thing is excellent; the production design being marvellous and Scott’s direction proving both understated and impressive. Rapace and Fassbender give as great central performances as their remarkable previous work would suggest. Marc Streitenfeld’s score was stirring and as a big Lost fan, I was glad to see Damon Lindelof credited as a writer and I felt the script was pretty strong.

As you’ve probably ascertained, I really liked Prometheus. Unfortunately, my only real criticisms concern the final half hour or so of the film, which makes it kind of difficult to outline them without spoiling it. Chiefly, the thing goes a bit Return of the King on us and manages to fit in about seven different endings, or rather, places where it should have ended. In doing so (and perhaps we can extend this to some of the larger themes of the film too), it seems to raise more questions than it answers and not in a good way. I realise that’s not an especially coherent sentence, but I hope if you see the film, you’ll get what I mean. The pudding does seem to get over-egged at the film’s conclusion and one wonders if Scott was under any pressure to make it a bit more action-packed and reminiscent of the films that came before it.

However, a slightly convoluted ending is far from enough to make Prometheus anything less than a top-notch sci-fi flick and one that I wholly recommend. It’s got creeping horror, scenes of utter bonkers-ness, a few smarts and a stark, brutal kind of beauty to the whole thing. And all this from the bloke that directed Robin Hood.