Review: Prometheus (2012)

Michael Fassbender in Prometheus

Directed by Ridley Scott
Produced by David Giler, Walter Hill, Ridley Scott, and Tony Scott
Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof
Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron

***1/2

Ridley Scott's much-anticipated Alien prequel (of sorts) is a highbrow science fiction film in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the aforementioned Alien (1979). The film follows a group of scientists as they explore a deep-space planet for their creators, meta-humans known as Engineers. These beings hold the apparent answer to human existence, but they turn out to be hostile towards their creations, i.e. the scientists. As the crew is wittled down by the foreign elements, one scientist (Rapace) and a robot (Fassbender) are left to find the answers, to seek out the Engineers and discover the reason for their hostility. Though the film ends here, it does depict the birth of the Alien right before the ending credits.

It is a film structured like Alien, but it has a number of ideas behind it to freshen the familiarity of the narrative. The questions of intelligent extraterrestrial life, creationism, war, and genetic mutation are present, giving the film an admirable quality that most blockbusters do not carry. That said, the film is a slight disappointment. With the weight of these ideas, the film still suffers from a few problems, such as exposition issues with the Engineers, that hold it back from reaching the level of other sci-fi masterpieces. Of course, the film is technically superb, and the cast as a whole performs arguably better than the cast of Scott's Alien. The film offers great entertainment and features stimulating ideas, but the execution of those ideas leaves something to be desired.

Oscar Potential: Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects