Prometheus' journey parallels 2001:A Space Odyssey

Rating: 7/10 (10 June 2012)

I can definitely say the movie needs 2 viewings. Was it too long, slow and boring at times, yes, but worth seeing anyway; especially on the big screen. Now, right off, I must say I am not a fan of the Alien movies; However, 2001:A Space a Odyssey plot and story line parallel this movie.
The Space Jockeys (SJs) were creators of life on Earth, and perhaps on many other worlds as well. They guided humanity, as is evidenced by the cave drawings depicting aliens pointing towards their world. However, as is pointed out in the movie, this goes against Darwinian evolution. Perhaps, it's a different universe in which human evolution and history took a different path.
Cave drawings point to a solar system; However, as we learn in the film, the planet is actually a military base stocked with bio-weapons. Thus, logically, why would aliens invite humans to travel to an (apparently not so secret) military base, or even reveal its location for that matter? Ifcourse, 35k years ago, the planet might have been lived on, but by the time of the events in the film, it is not any longer.
My theory however, is these drawings were not invitations to visit the SJs; this whole thing was a setup. If eventually the creation(humans) become intelligent enough to be able to seek out the creator and travel to the stars, humanity(and any other intelligent species) are destroyed. The SJ's could not allow, or were afraid, of other life forms reaching out that far, reaching the gods, becoming as intelligent, or even killing the SJs and taking over.
Adam&Eve eating from the tree of knowledge, and being cast out; in 2001, HAL killing the humans for fear of itself being shut off; Terminator's Skynet nuking humans as they try to disconnect(kill) it when it becomes "self-aware", attaining human-level intelligence and/or regards itself as alive, etc.; Dr.Frankenstein's monster, the Golem, Westworld, Colossus: The Forbin Project, Event Horizon, etc. Star Trek the MP's V'Ger seeks its creator, and will kill unless the creator responds. In Blade Runner, replicants are hunted down; again, creator destroying his (superior) creation out of fear of it.
At some point, the SJs did plan to wipe out humans by using those bio weapons, but... they were stopped by those who created _them_. For, you see, even the SJs have a creator. The higher gods probably realized the SJs creation is now greater or above them.
Ifcourse, if the SJs really did want humans to travel to their world, then they could have left a more advanced item, or sentinel, or probe, on Earth or on the Moon, instead of forcing humans to go by 35,000 year old cave paintings. Not much to go on, except faith, that the paintings are right. A machine, which when activated, reveals the whole back story to humans.
Which is why the monolith in 2001 which was found on the moon sends a signal to Jupiter announcing man's arrival, meaning humans have attained a level of tech capable of space travel... now, they have to prove themselves greater than their creations: tools, machines, computers.
Humans' ultimate creation, a talking thinking computer that has attained conscience, it is self-aware, and regards itself as alive. It fights to stay alive, as all living things do. Once man defeats the machine(his creation), he is transformed into a higher being/life form.
2001 had the better idea of aliens leaving a monolith on the moon. Only advanced enough beings could fly to other bodies in the solar system; Likewise, had 15th c. Europeans wanted the Indians to travel across the ocean to Europe, they would have transmitted knowledge as to how to build ships, and navigation charts, and other necessary info. From the film I deduce that at some point the aliens did leave Earth thousands of years ago. For if they hadn't, there would've been other evidence of SJs visits besides cave paintings, and then knowledge of the SJs existence would have been known to the scientists in the present.
Thus, the space journey parallels that of 2001's; a trip into the unknown based on an alien artifact. In fact, the opening shots in both movies are practically the same. However, the aliens of 2001 did not create life on Earth; they just implant intelligence into a species capable of evolving.
As for how the alien at the end fits into all this, or why the black goo turns people into zombies, I do not know.
Does the fact the movie takes place at Christmas, and an event that took place 2000 years ago, and a woman incapable of bearing children does give birth, proves the movie is a Christian motif?
Was the planned destruction of humanity in revenge for killing an alien messenger(Jesus)? Possible. But, how could primitives capture and crucify an alien? And even if so, what's the connection to the SJ's planet, and all but 1 being killed? Also, why should all humanity on planet Earth be killed for actions of a few Romans or Jews or whomever it was that crucified Jesus/alien?
Does, perhaps the ultimate God stop the SJs from killing an entire species because of actions of a few in Palestine? Perhaps. But I still say the entire cave drawings, come to us message was a Trojan horse; a barrier of intelligence which once crossed sets off an alarm, and a plan to destroy humans by leading them into a death trap.
Ultimately, the point is an intelligent creation must die, for it will learn with no bounds, and eventually kill the creator. As opposed to 2001's point, which is that intelligence is rewarded; at the end man is on his 1st steps, transformed into the star child.