Review | Prometheus (2012)

SYNOPSIS:
Ridley Scott, director of Alien and Blade Runner, returns to the genre he helped define. With Prometheus, he creates a groundbreaking mythology, in which a team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a thrilling journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race. — (C) Official Site

REVIEW:
Ridley Scott basically defined modern day SciFi movies as we know them. He blazed the trails with Alien and Blade Runner and then he moved on to other genres and provided us with movies like Gladiator, Thelma & Louise, and Black Hawk Down. Now he returns to form with Prometheus (the is an Alien prequel or not movie).

Well spoiler alert………… It is a prequel to Alien of sorts. You see Alien takes place in or around 2179 depending on who you believe it could be as early as 2122. Prometheus begins and ends in the year 2094, so at best this is 84 years before the events of Alien.

This story focuses around the space jockey’s unnamed race (who is of mysterious origins in the original Alien). A group of scientists are lead to a planet where they believe they will meet this race as they hold a possible key to our very existence. The answer they find isn’t probably what they were hoping for though.

Scott has once again directed a great science fiction film (probably not his best) and he directed his talented cast to some pretty great performances chief among them is bestowed to Michael Fassbender who is just fantastic as the android David. Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba are also really good in this. Guy Pearce is actually in this movie, but chances are that you will have to wait until the end credits to figure out who he played (I know I did).

Visually speaking, this movie is stunning! CG is superb, the scenery was alive and done so well that it often requires serious thought to remember that they aren’t in a real place. Scott’s movies seem to have that effect almost every time.

There are a lot of legit creepy scenes throughout and Scott (in my view) has managed to recapture a lot of what made Alien scary the first time around. I always felt the weight of the tension that the characters were feeling as well.

A lot of questions kind of remained unanswered by the time the credits rolled at the end, but the ending itself left a sequel hole in it so wide and awe inspiring that it seems pretty obvious there will be more of these to come (presuming this doesn’t bomb).

Also kudos must be doled out to the writing staff who managed to stay true to the tone that the original Alien films created. At times it really did feel like I was watching something Scott made around that same time but just never got around to releasing it.

There are some faults with the film, but most of them are minor quibbles that merely just distracted me from time to time but nothing that ultimately took away from the movie itself. It’s not a perfect film and while it works as a stand alone movie it certainly feels like it is just the first chapter in a story that has a few more chapters left.

3 1/2 Geeky Glasses

R, 2 hr. 4 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Directed By: Ridley Scott

Written By: Damon Lindelof, Jon Spaihts

TRAILER: