Film Review: Prometheus

Try as you might you're always going to come across spoilers for films that you don't want to know about. It seems the moment I made the decision to avoid all things Prometheus until I saw at the cinema, it became about ten times harder to avoid. It's with that in mind I issue the following warning...

Whilst I'm clearly not going to be going into the plot of the film, this review will contain references to the film, so if you're looking for a straight forward thumbs up or thumbs down, this isn't the place for you. Lets just say minor spoilers?

Equally hard to avoid is comparisons to Alien. Much has been talked about whether this film is a prequel or a standalone movie in the same 'universe', but I think by the end of the film most people will be able to see a lot clearer. As regular readers know, I try to avoid making comparisons to other films, but with Prometheus it may well be unavoidable. Sharing the same universe AND director in Ridley Scott offers too much in common with the 1979 classic.

"Yes Noomi, I am seeing this, stop asking!"

When a team of explorers discover the latest in a series of drawings that may explain the origins of mankind on this planet, they travel with a team of space truckers (kind of, more on that distinction in a moment) as well as a robot given the appearance of a human called David (Michael Fassbender) to the distant moon hinted at in these drawings to see if these beings can give them the answers they've been looking for.

Instantly, comparisons can be drawn. When you start to watch the film, similarities are instant. The design of the ship, down to the cryo-pods for extended slumber, as well as the presence of a robot does make you think of Alien, it can't be helped. But Prometheus does have its own story to tell, which is where things start to get slightly flawed.

Whilst the performances are great (Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw, one of the explorers and Michael Fassbender in particular) everything is let down a bit by the writing. The characters are not especially well developed, which causes confusion with the minor characters on the ship(apart from the aforementioned Rapace and Fassbender, as well as Charlize Theron and Idris Elba, everyone just kind of gels into one), and just the dialogue in general is just a bit clunky. It just doesn't have as much to say as Alien did.

When I mentioned space truckers a few paragraphs back, I say that but it's never really specified that well what exactly the minor characters do. One of them carries a gun at an early stage, for protecting the team, but there's never really any kind of moment where you know what each characters function really is.

But apart from that, things are great. The film itself looks stunning. I saw it (proudly) in 2D, and it just looked jaw dropping, and after hearing comments from Scott himself which made it sound like 3D may not have been his choice, I'm glad I did. The design of the film is superb, and even has the return of H.R. Giger to create some more awe-inspiring and slightly unsettling models.

And Prometheus shows that Scott can still ratchet the tension up and produce some truly horrifying scenes, which more than live up to those of his other 'Alien universe' film. In particular there's a scene with Rapace that is stunningly gruesome, and there's plenty more horror too. I think it's the best film he's made in many, many years.

Prometheus won't please viewers expecting another Alien film, that much should have been obvious from even the shortest teaser trailer. But even that won't stop some purists picking apart the film for years to come. But as a standalone film, it's a very impressive spectacle, only let down by slightly sub par writing.

****
Overall, a successful return to the Alien franchise for Scott, a truly impressive film. But the writing lets the side down, with some poorly written characters and dialogue in places. It shall be interesting to see where this story shall lead next.