Not entirely living up to the expection-built-up

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2012)

After the media hype and tantalizing secrecy, this alleged prequel of Alien (1979) seems to be receiving a general verdict of: certainly a good A-movie but still not quite living up to the lofty expectation that has been building all the way to its release. Can this be a case of perhaps too high an expectation?
Ridley Scott packed this movie with so much self referential and cross referential, explicit and subtle both, that there is no point pursuing the matter except for those who look at this as an opportunity to show of their eruditeness, imagined or otherwise. Among those referenced are iconic directors such as Stanley Kubrick, David Lean and David Fincher who might have been perceived by Scott to have stolen the directorship from him for "Alien 3". ("Aliens", the second in the series, directed by James Cameron, is generally considered to be not really an "Alien" movie, but rather a war movie casting the aliens conveniently as enemies.)
With the "Chariots of the gods" (1970) as its ground-root backdrop, "Prometheus" hints at a lot of things surrounding the lofty question on the origin and ultimate fate of humanity, without any attempts to explore it. The main attraction of this movie is in its unsurpassed visuals (3D or otherwise) and jaw-dropping action sequences. A mandatory mention in any discussion of this movie must be a highlight set piece about a fully automatic medical operation – sheer brilliance. Nothing like that has ever been seen on screen and there is really no point for anybody to copy it (although undoubtedly some will) as it is so unique.
While this is not exactly an Oscar bid for anybody, the cast did a good job. Noomi Rapace, with her impressive credentials from the original Swedish version of the girl with a dragon tattoo, has proved herself a worthy successor of Sigourney Weaver. Personally, it was an interesting experience watching Charlize Theron in the two movies back-to-back - "Prometheus" and "Snow White and the Huntsman" – as two versions of equally icy beauty – a ruthless corporate executive in charge of the expedition and a fairy tale an evil queen. She is splendid in both but has been given considerably more depth in the latter. Michael Fassbender as android "David" (why this name, you may ask?) project more subtleties in any version of artificial intelligence you have seen before, as fully expected of an actor of his calibre. Guy Pearce as the dead-but-not-really-dead corporate giant behind the expedition is so much fun to watch. Idris Elba, the solemn guardian of "the portal" in "Thor" as you'll remember, assumes a very different persona here as the captain of the titular spaceship, and has actually been given a degree of character development rarely seen in this genre. Not as fortunate is the rest of the crew, an assortment of stereotypes or even merely moving props.