REVIEW: Prometheus (2012)

The following is a short review of Prometheus – Directed by Ridley Scott. For more Alien reviews, check out this category.

Ridley Scott’s long-awaited return to the Alien-franchise – Prometheus – offered up several surprises and was ultimately deemed a ‘let down’ by many fans of the franchise. The premise of the prequel film was, to an extent, at odds with fan expectations, but was nevertheless an admirable and ambitious attempt at rebranding a franchise that needed to feel fresh again.

Prometheus takes place in the late 21st century and follows the crew of the space ship the Prometheus, which is travelling towards a star map discovered on ancient drawings found by archaeologists Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (played by Logan Marshall-Green). They hope to find the race of ‘people’ called the ‘Engineers,’ who the archaeologists believe to be the creators of the human race.

I ultimately quite enjoyed Prometheus even if certain things about it were admittedly fairly disappointing. While I ultimately really appreciated the fascinating and ambitious prequel story, various story elements were the films biggest problems.

I still think that Prometheus is ultimately hurt by poor character decisions. Many of the major character decisions that propel the story forward and moves the plot along are completely illogical. Characters that are meant to be fairly intelligent make dumb decisions over the course of the film.

Many of those characters are also tough to distinguish from each other, and really only one or two of these characters are at all memorable. It is a crime to modern cinema that Prometheus basically wastes both Charlize Theron and Idris Elba — they both deserve much better roles than they are given.

But the disappointing thing about Prometheus was obviously that there was barely any alien action in it, and while I really enjoy the ambition of the film, I do think that this film needed a Xenomorph to somewhat appease critics and fans alike.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Prometheus actually is the visuals. The visual effects are stunning and the alien planet is spectacularly shot. Nevertheless, whenever I rewatch Prometheus the main thing that I am fixated upon is Michael Fassbender’s performance as the android David.

The Alien-franchise is known for having great android characters – like Lance Henriksen’s Bishop and Ian Holm’s Ash – but I don’t think I’ve ever been as fascinated with a character in the franchise as I am with Fassbender’s blond-haired android.

Prometheus is an ambitious, but deeply-flawed, Alien-prequel that I really admire, which raises many fascinating questions about the origin of both the human race and the classic Alien-movie monster.

7 out of 10

– Jeffrey Rex