Nothing Short of Breathtaking

Rating: 10/10 (24 November 2012)

Following the discovery of a series of cave paintings all depicting the same other-worldly beings cradling a series of galaxies, a multi-billion dollar mission is funded by the enigmatic entrepreneur Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) for a group of scientists headed by Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) to visit a moon on a planet trillions of miles away investigating the ultimate question: can we meet the Gods that created us?
Ridley Scott's finest science (fiction?) epic ever poses a million questions and does something rare in having the audience try to find the answers themselves. Damon Lindelof returns to the same thrills that drew similar viewers to "Lost" by penning a script with Jon Spaihts that stuns and thrills while never trying to oversimplify its message.
Charlize Theron and Noomi Rapace head the cast as strong, independent, willful women who travel light-years away to prove their power. Both turn in strong, Oscar-worthy performances aside a supporting cast including actors such as Idris Elba as the tough captain of the "Prometheus" vessel and Logan-Marshall Green as a scientist desperate to find the meaning of his life.
Michael Fassbender here plays an android, David, created by Weyland to keep maintenance of the people involved and the mission itself. As the humans around him try to find out who created them, he lives his life knowing why he was created, and it torments him. Fassbender's performance alone wins the film ten stars. An Oscar is not enough for his work here.
The worlds we may never know in our lifetime are brought stunningly to the screen using breathtaking cinematic effects that are not used strictly as a budget expense, but as a character in themselves. The score written is profound and beautiful, using the entire orchestra to emphasize the profundity of what these characters discover. The combination is pure movie-going magic.
There will naturally be a sequel and it will naturally not be as good as its predecessor. Perhaps that will be because it answers the incredible questions asked by the first film. But is that not the question "Prometheus" asks us to ask ourselves in the first place?