Great-Looking And Agreeable Sort-Of Prequel To Alien But With Lumbering Storyline

Rating: 6/10 (30 June 2012)

In the year 2093, two scientists researching ancient civilisations theorise that humanity is descended from alien civilisations. They trace star patterns in cave paintings to a distant galaxy and a wealthy industrialist funds an exploration ship, Prometheus, to travel there. What will they find, and will they return ?
This would be a great movie if it weren't for the story. It illustrates the classic problem of script quality versus technical accomplishment. In purely visual terms it is outstanding - the Prometheus and the LV-223 planet are both fabulous, alternating gleaming white and chrome curving passageways with vast black igneous chambers. The effects are excellent and there's a great booming growling score by German composer Marc Streitenfeld that really adds to the atmosphere. Dariusz Wolski's cinematography gets you into the places - you feel like you're there - typified by a hair-curlingly gruesome sequence where Rapace has to perform a jury-rigged abortion on herself and there is literally no escape from the photography. This is all stuff that old master Scott excels at, and he delivers a sensational film in that context. But - here it comes - the movie is let down by those two ever-crucial ingredients; the plot and the characters. The plot is interesting; it has some good ideas (I love those little dog-robot geology scanners and the three-dimensional topographic model they create back on the ship) but it doesn't go anywhere. The concepts are intriguing but not very original (Erich von Däniken and the late Nigel Kneale could both sue) and at the key moments it descends into formula. The big scene is when our heroes revive the alien and wait breathlessly for his infinite wisdom ... and all he does is beat them up. There are no answers. Similarly, the characters are okay but I don't care enough about them and the story throws them away with little punch or pathos. The cast are fine, with Fassbender in the showy robot part and Theron as a bitchy overseer, but nobody comes alive. I guess what this emphasises to me is just how good the script for Alien really is (by another late great sf writer, Dan O'Bannon); a beautifully logical and self-contained story with great characters, where the shocks are horrifyingly plausible. I still enjoyed it though - cinema is pictures and this movie has great pictures. It's also not a slave to its progenitor, existing as an existential sf piece in its own right, which is why I'm glad it's not called Pre-Alien or something. In some ways though the nostalgia factor is good, with Sir Ridley helming an exciting flick at Shepperton Studios where he made the first film, along with original producer partners David Giler and Walter Hill - sadly, the third producer, Gordon Caroll, passed away in 2005. An intelligent and well-made science-fiction odyssey.