Time (And Sequels) Will Tell

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2016)

I believe that Prometheus will turn out to be one of those movies that are much more highly regarded years later than they were upon their release, especially if the upcoming sequels succeed in tying together all of the seemingly disparate elements presented here.
If you watch Prometheus expecting an Alien-style scare-fest, you're going to come away confused and disappointed. This is not space- horror, this is sci-fi on a grand scale. It tackles big themes, poses many questions, and gives few answers. This film was clearly conceived as Chapter One in a much larger story, and if seen as such, it does its job quite well. It presents the framework of the story and leaves the viewer wanting to know more.
While I concede that character development is mostly lacking, especially regarding the overabundance of minor characters who seem to be little more than devices to move the plot, this really isn't a story where any particular character's arc is of great importance. I see the crew of the Prometheus as a collective version of the archetypal Lovecraftian protagonist who probes where he shouldn't and pays the ultimate price. Their hubris leads to carelessness, which ultimately leads to their destruction. Even at the end, the sole human survivor remains arrogantly determined to find her "gods" and demand the answers she seeks.
Actually, the whole movie seems quite Lovecraftian to me, in both its themes and much of its plot, which recalls both "At the Mountains of Madness" (characters stumble upon an extinct civilization that may have created humans) and "The Other Gods" (a man tries to find the gods in order to extract their knowledge). And like much of Lovecraft's work, its central theme is that there may be some things we are not meant to know, some questions that are best left unanswered, and that seeking such knowledge leads to folly.
I'm very curious to see what happens in the upcoming sequel, Alien: Covenant. I sincerely hope that, contrary to its name, it won't be reduced to a mere origin story for the Xenomorph. I realize that will have to be addressed at some point, but I hope it won't be the focus, as there is so much more fertile ground that can be explored.