My take on Prometheus...

Rating: 8/10 (18 August 2012)

I'm a huge fan of the Alien culture, even though the franchise didn't come up with anything substantial in the last fifteen years. After all this time, no one came close in creating such an iconic sci-fi universe which is in the same caliber as Alien. I would have given away my left kidney just to see a modern, mature Aliens movie which is faithful to the classics. Years have passed by, then director Sir Ridley Scott announced Prometheus . I wasn't sure what to expect from this title until the first trailers appeared. Watching these almost made me buy a cryo chamber to freeze myself until the release day. Now that I have finally seen the movie, I must say that the enormous hype, and the wait did pay off: Prometheus is my favorite movie of 2012 so far, even surpassing the highly regarded The Avengers by far.
Prometheus raises questions about "who are we, what's our origin", the Creation itself, without answering it. The film starts off in the supposed past, where a humanoid drinks a liquid material on a ridge of a waterfall, which makes it's body disintegrate conjugating it's remains with the water. But is this planet is Earth, and is this how life was created?
Shortly after this scene, we hop in time to the late 2000's: two archaeologist, Elisabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall Green), find ancient, undiscovered cave drawings which they interpret as an invitation from their supposed creators. These paintings points them to a planet, LV-223, where they expect to meet them, the "Engineers". But will they find their genesis here?
Though the premise sound good, the script isn't flawless though. Certain elements of the story were left to our imaginations, and I didn't really got David's (Michael Fassbender) brilliantly acted, but unexplained motives. Character development leaves a lot to be desired, but the acting was spot-on for the most of the time. What makes Prometheus good though, is the fact that it's not afraid to experiment with new ideas. It differs both in tone and suspense from Alien, and still remaining solid and entertaining.
Visually speaking, there is much to behold here: mind-blowing special effects, (including the detailed Prometheus and the Engineer spaceship, the sandstorm, the aliens) crisp, vast array of colors, and 3D (which didn't seem forced at all) all packaged into an impressive scenery. I can't recall any better looking movie in recent memory. Audio-wise, the soundtrack was great. It didn't always fit the appropriate scene with the highly orchestral sounding, but overall Marc Streitenfeld did a terrific job.
Prometheus is an intelligent experience, and is not for everyone. You have to walk in the cinema with an open mind, and don't expect it to be a prequel to Alien, because you will be disappointed. Don't seek the scary, action packed nature of Alien/Aliens, just pay attention to the message the movie is trying to deliver.
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