Prometheus
★★★
Following (or should that be preceding?) his own seminal sci-fi masterpiece, Ridley Scott has sadly missed a trick or two in his highly anticipated origin of the species film Prometheus. Loosely photocopying scenes from Alien which helped build a blue print for modern horror Prometheus feels like history repeating instead of expanding and sadly, though beautifully designed and amply acted, it never quite reaches the heart pounding, sweaty palmed fear generated by Lt. Ripley and the crew of the Nostromo no matter how hard it tries.
The 2001: A Space Odyssey like set up finds a couple of archeologists (Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) uncovering a cave painting in Scotland in the distant future. A group of human like figures pointing to a constellation of lights in the sky, identical to ones the pair have already found in caves scattered all over the globe, a hint at prehistoric extra terrestrial activity on earth. That being enough to go on the two idealists get backing from one Peter Weyland (a ludicrously oldified Guy Pierce) and his billion dollar exploration company and shoot off across the galaxy to the planet where they believe it all began.
A large group of crew members occupy the ship, Prometheus, including a cold, spandex clad Charlize Theron as the wonderfully named boss lady Meredith Vickers and as in all Alien films a, this time, scene stealing android, David (Michael Fassbender), with a passion for Peter O’Toole’s controlling moralist Lawrence of Arabia and a haircut and voice to match. There is also Idris Elba’s sadly wasted Captain Janek and a whole load of characters that you can’t even come close to caring about but don’t worry, neither can writers Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof. After landing and heading into one of many stone domes built on the planet’s surface, obviously they find that things aren’t quite to their liking.
With a history and design this rich to draw on and with the best driver at the wheel Prometheus’ expectations were always going to need to pander to a list of fans needs and non fans ignorance with regards to the already bloated franchise. What Prometheus tries to do is balance both to please but ends up becoming a bit of an over crowded mess of Arthur C. Clarke-ish-ness built around an action film, something I’m sure we’re all a bit tired of seeing.
That being said, Scott still occasionally has the skills to put on a show which at times clambers to almost sheer terror. Rapace using a medical booth for an obscene and ludicrous act of desperation certainly stands out and the films closing 20 minutes are tense enough to warrant a ticket but nothing quite comes close the simple muscle straining fear in watching Sigourney Weaver, drenched in red light, searching for a cat before her ship explodes. After all, simplicity is what makes horror so definitively wild and free as a genre.
Prometheus is stunning to look at and fun to watch, it breezes by even, punctuated with sickly violence and beautiful set design. Fassbender is a strong point and Rapace’s wonderfully round open face and determined personality does well in the shadow of the genre busting femme icon of Ellen Ripley.
Sadly it only answers the questions asked by any self regarding Alien fan as loosely as possible and, all being said and done, the origin of H.R Giger’s iconic creature history is, in hindsight, only shaded in enough to set up a recently announced sequel to the prequel. A shame then that at the end of it all this slightly clumsy but pretty SciFi has being given a once more around the block to expand on the bank book rather than the mythology, especially considering that script, the action or the cannon fodder that are half of the cast never quite gave it the weight it is worthy of.
