Phylogenesis

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2014)

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock." - Revelations 3:20
A prequel to his 1979 film, "Alien", Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" opens with a homage to the opening shot of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey". Scott then treats us to a riff on Kubrick's "Dawn of Man" sequence. Here, on a prehistoric planet Earth, aliens known as Engineers kick-start the evolution of life. They do this by ingesting "black goo". This goo breaks down the Engineer's biomass and somehow "spreads" their own genetic code. As the Biblical Eve is spawned by God from Adam's rib, so to does all subsequent life on Earth spawn from the Engineer's body.
"Prometheus" leaps ahead to the year 2089. Here, Christian scientist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) discovers several star-maps. These maps point to the distant moon of LV-223. Shaw believes that God is waiting there. Wealthy industrialist Peter Weyland harbours no such illusions. Aliens exist, they engineered humans, they live on LV-223, they have superior technology and he wants to meet them. Why? As he is dying, Weyland hopes to be granted immortality.
Weyland finances an expedition. The space vessel Prometheus will travel to LV-223 and make first contact with "God". The ship's name is fitting. In Greek mythology, Prometheus steals fire from Olympus - against the will of the Gods - for the benefit of humanity. This theft results in Prometheus enduring eternal punishment. Weyland's attempting a similar theft. Punishment awaits him as well.
After a great, distant shot of the Prometheus zipping across space – the ship resembles Joss Whedon's 'Serenity', plus an added pair of engine nacelles - "Prometheus" becomes increasingly stupid. Scott's ship is populated by annoying clichés, unbelievable characters and the usual slasher movie fodder. The revelations that Weyland is "hidden amongst the crew" and that one character, Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), is "really Weyland's daughter", are likewise cringe-worthy. A better director would have dropped Weyland and Meredith entirely from the plot. They add nothing.
On LV-223, the crew of the Prometheus discover an alien ship filled with vases. These vases house more black goo. When this goo comes into contact with indigenous worms, this results in the creation of slimy penis/vagina snakes. These penis/vagina snakes attack and kill several crew members. When the goo is ingested by sterile humans, though, a different process occurs, and squid-like creatures (Trilobites) are formed. A Trilobite later "infects" an Engineer, resulting in the birth of a bipedal xenomorph (Deacons) similar to the black aliens of Scott's first "Alien" movie. Deacons will presumably lead to Alien Queens and so Alien Eggs and so Alien Facehuggers and so Classic Aliens. The end result of such elaborate xenobiology is a bizarre revelation: the 1979 alien is the incestuous product of a human and a God. Shaw's even given her own freakish Immaculate Conception.
Late in the film, a character states the obvious: the Engineer's vases are weapons of mass destruction. Their target? Earth. Why? The Gods are angry at their creations, and so want to eradicate all humans. Why are they angry? The film doesn't say. Scott's early treatments make it clear: Jesus Christ was an Engineer, we killed him, and now Daddy's furious.
Sequels and prequels can't help but destroy the mysteries of their forefathers. In "Prometheus", almost everything alien about "Alien" (1979) is demystified. The strange horse-shoe spaceship of "Alien" gets turned into just another generic ancient temple (which crumbles in the last act, of course), the elephant-faced Engineers of 1979 turn into flute playing muscle-men, and the mysterious Weyland Industries turns into a bad joke. Elsewhere Scott tries to replicate the horror of his 1979 film, but hampered by a PG13 rating, his attempts are mostly impotent. People die, but nobody cares, and the film climaxes with a silly axe-battle, an uninvolving sacrifice and a giant-but-dull crash sequence. The film's only squeamish moment involves Shaw cutting a Trilobite out of her stomach. This Caesarean operation, or abortion, harks back to the iconic chest-burster sequence of the 1979 film, only here it's cynically reverse-engineered to both evoke a past moment and slip under a PG13 rating.
"Prometheus'" execution may be poor, but its core idea is very good. The "Alien" franchise works best as a sick nightmare in which Gods, men and beasts infect, rape and torture wombs, bodies and minds. In "Prometheus", Shaw's character arc is worthy of Ingmar Bergman ("Cries and Whispers", "Winter Light"), the poor girl clinging to her faith in the face of a cosmos which is monstrous, predatory and concerned only with death and decay. This is best seen during a cheesy sequence in which Shaw and Weyland resurrect an Engineer. They expect to find a benevolent Creator who imparts love, knowledge and truth. Instead, in a scene lifted verbatim from 1951's "The Thing", they get a swift fist to the face. God wants you dead.
"We made you because we could," David (Michael Fassbender), an android, says. "Can you imagine how disappointing it would be to hear this from your creator?" David harbours malice towards his Gods, hates humans, in much the same way the Engineers are disgusted by their own spawn. When unobserved, David watches David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia", a film about a maladjusted, homosexual man who is out of place amongst Europeans and Arabs.
Scott's always been interested in theology ("Conquest of Paradise", "Exodus", "Kingdom of Heaven"), and in interviews has outright called religion "the biggest source of evil". "Prometheus" ultimately ends on a note of optimism, though. In the film's best scene, Shaw hops aboard a spaceship and goes in search of the Engineer's creators. She has a crucifix around her neck and David's decapitated head in tow. Somewhere, out there, is the God of Infinite Regress. She will find Him, and she will knock on Heaven's Door.
7/10 – See "Pandorum", "The Thing" and "Vanishing on 7th Street" for this material done without pretence. See too Godard's "Hail Mary".