"Casino Royale" for the Alien franchise - New direction but 80% of what makes the fun is missing

Rating: 7/10 (1 June 2012)

We saw this film last night at a special midnight "premiere" at our local multiplex, with a packed crowd of Sci-fi and "Alien" fans. The tension and excitement was high. At the beginning the manager introduced the film but warned it "wasn't like Alien". 2 hours later the mood was quite ugly, as if a riot was about to break out, mainly because "it wasn't like Alien" This film suffers from the same problem all big hits do. They become so popular that they are then endlessly rehashed; to the point that people complain it's too formulaic and always the same. But when the creators then try to change it, or go in a different direction, the work is attacked for "not being 'X' or 'Y' enough". In many ways "Prometheus" is like 2006's "Casino Royale" – A back to basics origin story that lacks 80% of what made the series so popular, with a few little hints and name checks dropped here and there so that it can be said to be a "Bond" film even though it doesn't feel like one. So here we have effectively a re-run of the very first "Alien" – a near identical spaceship goes off to a distant planet, encounters an abandoned extra-terrestrial ship, finds something evil inside, crew is decimated, lone girl survives. However this one has NO ALIEN creature (save for one in the final moments) stalking the crew. Instead we have a couple of genetic mutations that might turn into Xenomorphs later, but look like zombies, some tentacle creatures, a 'body-hugger' (pre- miniaturisation facehugger) and the "Engineers". The "Engineers" are the films big new idea, the old Dannekin "Chariot of the Gods" extra- terrestrials that made/educated mankind, though they have been done so many times now in modern sci-fi that they are an immediate cliché. They are what were formerly called "Space Jockeys", that bizarre, disturbing creature piloting the crashed ship in "Alien" whose ossified corpse was one of the film's lasting mental images. Like Boba Fett, it was a throwaway background thing that took on a life of its own and was eventually granted an official backstory in the prequel. However, like Boba Fett, the official backstory is dull and kills all mystique. Turns out that strange, Elephant like creature we all tried to imagine as a living thing of flesh over those bones was just a spacesuit! Inside was a large white muscly man modelled on Mark Strong, our human progenitors no less, not exactly what we all secretly wanted to hear. They are a sort of "angel" who created mankind, but now seek to destroy, or supplant, us with the Xenomorph. "Why?" becomes the big question that propels the film's main heroine, Elizabeth Shaw, played by Noomi Rapace, a scientist who also has a strong Christian faith which directs her research. Contrary to popular myth, a good percentage of scientists are also religious, indeed science itself has always been fed by the religious impulse, and it is very refreshing to see faith not be treated with cheap contempt in a modern film. Shaw is the film's Ripley, though her toughness is of the interior rather than exterior kind: No weapons blasting or Alien fighting for her, rather it is the strength of her character and ideal that make her our heroine., and which lead her to continue her quest into the expected sequels. Michael Fassbender is excellent as the android David, though even he eventually proves to be less instrumental to the story than we first imagined. Charlize Theron is wasted as the slimy corporate type, as is Idris Elba as the jovial ship's captain. The rest of the cast barely make an impression, the total opposite of the usual ensemble cast of Alien films, and it isn't even clear who dies when and how. The special effects and the 3-D is brilliant, and makes the film a pleasing visual experience, rather like a large art instillation, but what the film lacks is narrative drive. It is as if they had taken the first part of the original Alien, then left out the second and third acts, making it the story of a group of people who land on a strange planet and find something, with a little bit of running around at the end. "Alien" motifs are deliberately dropped in to remind us we are watching one, like the opening conference (Aliens) the landing on LV233 (Alien) searching the Gigersque ship (Alien) Metal vials laid out like eggs (Alien) refusing the infected return (Alien) seeking safety in a pod then attacked (Alien 1-4) and the final radio message of hope (Alien 1- 4), but they are done so deliberately that they strike false, just namedrops to keep the fans happy. "Prometheus" tries to return to the pre-Star Wars sci-fi tradition that spawned the original film, the sci- fi of ideas and philosophy, big questions asked out there in the last unknown, but all it does is ask questions it then doesn't answer, saving those for sequels of the "to find out tune in next week!" variety. It takes out the Xenomorphs, the horror, the action, the chase, but puts nothing in their place. It is both a very bold film, for its ideas themes and visual splendour, but it is also not an "Alien" film, and not a very exciting or frightening one either, and it sets up answers we never get. It is definitely a film to see in a large cinema, and a pleasant experience, but radically alter your expectations or you will be like that riot mob last night baying for Ridley Scott's head!