Examines the possible alien origins of life on Earth.

Rating: Null/10 (9 November 2012)

There is a 1970 film "Chariots of the Gods", based on the Erich von Däniken book. It examines the theory and possibility that centuries ago some alien form from another world visited Earth and was responsible for the origin of the human race.
This movie, "Prometheus", is aligned with that theme. Instead of examining supposed evidence, it branches off into an entirely fictional treatment. As the movie opens we see a strange life form, that looks in many ways like Earthlings, open a container and consume its contents, presumably on an ancient Earth, falls into a waterfall, is spontaneously broken apart, and its DNA begin to form new life. This is meant to represent a type of beginning of life here.
Cut to modern times, actually almost 80 years into the future, and scientists exploring a region of Scotland, the Isle of Skye, find ancient drawings, perhaps 35,000 years old, that has style links to other ancient drawings found in different parts of the world. Too similar to be coincidence they theorize all of them were references to a far-away world. And they use the patterns of celestial references to figure out where it is.
A few years later a deep space mission, in a ship called 'Prometheus', complete with an android and suspended animation chambers, travels to the location suspected to be the "origin of life." When they get there they find a number of things they never bargained for.
The cast are all good actors, including Noomi Rapace (the scientist), Michael Fassbender ( the android), Charlize Theron as the space ship's captain, Idris Elba (the pilot) Guy Pearce in very heavy makeup as the dying old man financing the mission.
We enjoyed it, two hours did not seem long because the story was so interesting. It appears a sequel is in the works, as the movie ends with a survivor headed away in a space ship with questions still unanswered.