In August last year, I posted this Random Question: What movie you’ve seen most often on the big screen as I was inspired by my colleague who saw Aliens twelve times on the big screen. Well, now he’s here to tell us whether Prometheus lives up to his lofty expectations.
Review by Phil Thompson
Full disclosure: I am a big fan of the first 2 Alien movies, Aliens is my all-time favorite movie, and I actually saw it twelve times in theaters. So yeah, I’m a fan.
“A king has his reign, and then he dies. It is inevitable.”
These words open the narration of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, a return to the Alien universe he created back in 1979 with Alien. A character will speak these words again later in the movie, and their significance will be apparent at that time.
Prometheus is a gorgeous movie, with excellent cinematography, sets, and special effects, and is generally well-cast and well-acted. The soundtrack was a bit of a let-down for me; it never really conveyed a sense of fear or dread. The movie combines the genres of science-fiction, action, and horror, with a touch of religion added in. It has a lot in common with the original Alien, but also interestingly evokes memories of 2001: A Space Odyssey. And although this is clearly a prequel to the movie Alien, it is not a direct prequel in the sense that the events of this movie will lead to the beginning of Alien. Rather, the events in Prometheus will answer some questions about Alien, and will help you better understand the Alien movies.
The general storyline of Prometheus is that in the late 21st century, a handful of scientists/archaeologists convince the massive Weyland mega-Corporation to bankroll an expedition to the moon (“LV-223”) of a distant planet, where they hope to find some answers about the beginning of mankind on Earth.
The 2 scientists/archaeologists behind Prometheus’ mission are Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fame) and Dr. Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green). Michael Fassbender plays the eerie robot David who must look after Prometheus’ sleeping human passengers on the 2+-year journey from Earth to LV-223. Charlize Theron is the grumpy corporate Meredith Vickers, who is in charge of the expedition for the Weyland Corporation, and Idris Elba is Janek, the ship’s gruff, Christmas-loving pilot. Guy Pearce also appears in heavy makeup as Peter Weyland, the CEO of the massive Weyland Corporation.
Prometheus is Noomi Rapace’s movie, and she is a strong female character in the vein of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in the first 2 Alien movies. The harrowing scene where Shaw undergoes a self-inflicted medical procedure is the movie’s best, in my opinion. The other standout star of this movie is Fassbender’s David. He evokes memories of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and you will spend much of the movie trying to understand why he acts the way he does.
Spoiler Alert: [highlight the text below if you want to read the spoiler]
Shaw and David will be part of any “Prometheus” sequels.
Theron’s Meredith Vickers doesn’t have a lot to do in this movie, but she does deliver one of my favorite lines in the movie: “If you’re going down there, you’re going to die.” Interestingly enough, the person(s) she says this to are not the persons she appears to say it to in the movie’s many trailers.
The movie starts out relatively quickly, with a couple quick setup scenes, and in less than 15 minutes, the Prometheus, an opulent trillion-dollar spacecraft with a crew of just 17 people, is in orbit around LV-223. At this point, Drs. Shaw and Holloway announce to the ship’s crew that they believe some beings they call “Engineers” left some breadcrumbs on Earth “inviting” us to follow them to this exact location, and that they hope to find some evidence of these “Engineers” on this moon, and maybe even meet one of them.
The Prometheus finds some clearly non-natural structures on LV-223, and sets down to investigate them. What they find is not what they expected to find, and some characters’ hidden agendas eventually appear, making things even more interesting. The rest of the movie is a roller-coaster ride, with very few wasted scenes. The ending clearly calls out for at least one sequel, and the final scene of the movie is not to be missed by fans of the “Alien” movies.
So did it live up to my own lofty expectations?
Short answer is: YES. I enjoyed this movie, and I would recommend that you go see it. But the movie does have several flaws. Its alien creatures (all but one) are surprisingly uninspired (in my opinion), compared to H.R. Giger’s creations for the earlier movies. It has a few serious plot holes – in a trillion dollar expedition to a remote moon, would there really be nobody monitoring 2 scientists stuck off-ship during a storm? And the movie brings up an awful lot of questions that will leave you shaking your head days later. And some of those questions can only be answered by a sequel. But these are relatively minor flaws, and will not prevent you from enjoying the movie.
As a big fan of both the Alien and Aliens movies, I was a little disappointed that this movie kind of sets off in a different direction. It explains how the aliens in the Aliens movies came to be, but then moves off in another direction with the Engineers and the questions associated with them, and any “Prometheus” sequels would appear to marginalize the “Alien” storylines. I think I might’ve enjoyed the Jon Spaights version of the script more, which supposedly was more of a true Alien prequel, with the same aliens/eggs/chest-bursters that we’ve come to know (and love?).
Thoughts on the Box Office take and the 3D quality:
From what I’m reading right now, Prometheus has opened to a $50 million box-office take in its opening weekend. I think that amount would’ve been a lot higher if the movie didn’t have an R rating. Madagascar 3D bumped Prometheus off the large UltraScreen in the Marcus Oakdale Theater near me, and also out of the main large 3D theater in my local theater. I was stunned that a movie of Prometheus caliber would have to play second fiddle to an animated film about a bunch of animals.
I would recommend getting to the theater on time, as the very first scene of the movie is somewhat important, especially if you want to understand some of the deeper concepts in the movie. Also, I saw the movie both in 3D and on a regular screen, and I didn’t feel that the 3D added much. But I did not see it on an IMAX screen, and I do wear glasses, so any 3D movie for me means 2 sets of glasses. Add in the fact that a lot of the movie’s scenes are in dark scary places, and it doesn’t make for the best 3D viewing.
If you’re like me, you’ll have at least one or two very large questions after the movie ends, and if you go online to get some answers, you’ll find all sorts of them. And you may be surprised to find that the movie may have been hinting at far bigger things than you may have first thought.
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| 4 out of 5 reels | ||||
Have you seen Prometheus? Feel free to add your thoughts below on whether this film lives up to the hype.
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
Fine review, Phil. And if you get a chance, you should see this in IMAX. It works very well in that large scale format. I plan on seeing it again this weekend. I favor the Cinema Blend’s Unraveling the Unanswered Questions piece concerning those unsettled aspects in the film. To tell the truth, I think there will be another director’s cut coming when the disc is released in the market. I just got that sense there are missing pieces in this RS work, or maybe I’m just intrigued by it all. Which means the filmmaker did his job ;-). Thanks for this.
I have to refrain from going to that link until I see the movie 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the movie, Michael, makes me want to see it even more!
Nice write up, Phil. This is definitely at the top of my must see films this year. As I told you and Ruth earlier, I took the wife and kids to see Madagascar 3 (for the kids) this weekend – I jokingly told my wife I’d go to the adjacent theatre to see Prometheus and she gave me quite the evil look… Hope to see more sci fu stuff from you in the future. For what it’s worth, Madagascar 3 was pretty decent – way better than Cars 2.
Ahah, so YOU’re part of the crowd that makes Madagascar won over Prometheus! 😀 But in reality though, there is no way an R-rated sci-fi could compete with a kids movie, especially when there’s no other children’s movies opening that weekend. I think it’s great business that Prometheus even made over $50 mil!
Great review and I kind of like the fact that because you are a huge fan of Alien that you did not automatically give it 5 reels.
nice write up Phil, I enjoyed the film and think everyone should check it out in 3D Imax if possible. It was one of the better Imax experiences I have enjoyed.
I did have some serious problems with the scripts reliance on the characters making asanine decisions to advace the plot. As my brother said it was like the crew of the Prometheus was the McHale’s Navy of outer space.
Spoilers at the links below.
This is a very good 4-minute video listing all the questions you will have after seeing “Prometheus.”
And here’s another snarky recap of the movie.
Great review. Agree with you very much! It definitely does have ‘relatively minor flaws’ but these certainly did not stop me enjoying it. I did think the 3D was utterly pointless though. Left me with a lot of questions but it all moves so swiftly that it kept me very entertained!
I liked the fact that it went in a different direction in order to arrive at what we recognize as ‘Alien’ continuity. It felt like there was more going on in this universe than the Xenomorphs – and except for that final minute, one could watch this without knowing anything about the other ‘Alien’ movies.
So here’s a question for you then: would you be interested in seeing a Prometheus sequel if there were no Aliens involved? Because the way the movie ended, a sequel could clearly proceed with no xenomorphs whatsoever.
I agree completely. But I wouldn’t wanna see a sequel anyway because I didn’t think this was that great.
I found it overall awesome. There was one scene where 2 of the male characters seemed to act…rather dumb, but overall i enjoyed it
I have seen it and loved it!!!
I have just finished writing my review, not as good as Phil’s, but I can’t published it yet because my stupid internet connection is acting weird. it kept saying that wordpress ir restricted area. I am reading this with my mobile
Wow, you beat me Nov! I’m still hoping to see it this weekend but we have a 5/10K charity walk thing on Sunday so not sure if I can even get to it. Glad you love it!
A very fair review I would say. I was worried at the beginning with all the flashing warnings saying this was a review from a die hard Aliens fan!
Totally agree with your review. Yes there were holes and some flawed plot points, but it was still a solid(ish) film.
The more reviews i read, the more I begin to piece together some theories, love it!
Ahah, I was thinking he either praised it to the moon or trashed it completely, so yeah I too was surprised he’s quite fair w/ his review. I can’t wait to finally see it so I can re-read this review — and others — again and know what they’re talking about 😀
I’m surprised as I seem to be in the minority about this movie, I hated it. I’m wondering if I should give it a second view removed from expectations (although I’m not a HUGE Alien fan I expected something grand and outside the SFX I didn’t feel I got that).
Great review, Phil! It’s awesome to hear that a die hard Alien/s fan was able to enjoy it as much as you did. I also had a lot of fun with this movie, and I think it will hold up as one of the year’s best blockbusters.
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Good review Phil and happy that you liked it. Personally, I don’t really know what to make of Prometheus and I felt a bit underwhelmed by it after seeing it on Wednesday. The film sort of sits in that zone where it both showed too much and not enough and was too straightforward and yet had some really intriguing narrative strands of underlying themes.
I feel like all the discussion/interpretations of the movie this past week is giving Ridley Scott too much credit. I think the movie is a muddled depiction of his vision.
Wow. 12 times on the big screen? THAT is dedication! hehe
Great review, man! Just watched this yesterday and had a lot of fun!
I reviewed this right before leaving for Paris. I was pretty surprised to see it getting fairly mixed reviews from my fellow blogging buddies. I really liked the film. Great review as always Ruth.
It’s my colleague’s review, Keith, mine can be found here: https://flixchatter.net/2012/06/18/weekend-roundup-thoughts-on-prometheus-the-imaginarium-of-dr-parnassus-bbc-zen/
So you don’t have any issues about the plot?? That aliens have something to do w/ engineering us human??
I really didn’t have any major issues with the plot. I liked the ambiguity and thought the tug between the spiritual and scientific was done in a way that never took sides. I have my firm belief in God as my Creator but again this is science fiction so even the above mentioned themes are trumped by the make believe premise.
I also think Scott has every intention of this going further. I think he has more answers to share but wants us to chew on this first. A sequel is clearly intended. Hopefully the movie will make the money needed to give it to us.
“I have my firm belief in God as my Creator…” Glad to hear, Keith. I feel the same way. In fact, I was commenting on one review post that my belief in Creationism and the Nativity Story is not based on ‘blind faith’ as there are more evidence supporting those theories than otherwise.
Oh yeah, I suppose it’s called sci-fi for a reason, but I still think the argument/plot still needs to hold up and for me I feel that there are too many plot holes to merit a high praise. Still I enjoyed it, and hey any movie that provoke basic existential questions is always good 😀
Glad to see you standing up for your faith. It’s sometimes hard when it’s met with such speculation. But our faith most certainly isn’t a blind faith. I’ve seen God’s evidences every day of my life and I have no problems sharing it. 🙂