Plot Issues Aren't Enough to Detract from PROMETHEUS Overall Successes

Rating: 8/10 (16 January 2013)

The original ALIEN is one of my all-time favorite movies. So it should be no surprise that I was super excited when I'd read that director Ridley Scott would be returning to the franchise for a prequel. Then the news came that Scott claimed it was no longer a prequel to ALIEN but claimed that it retained the same "DNA" of the original film. OKwasn't sure what to make of the news but I remained excited regardless. It's Ridley Scott returning to science fiction; I was sold from the start. I can't say I was disappointed when I finally saw the finished product in theaters, but I was certainly confused. I knew I liked it but I was overrun with questions about what I'd seen. I started checking out reviews and getting a general consensus on what others felt and I wasn't alone: this movie left a lot of people baffled. Bizarre character decisions, confusing plot elements, and a black ooze that would apparently serve whatever purpose the script neededI was glad I wasn't the only one having trouble wrapping my head around it. The movie is set long before the crew of the NOSTROMO arrives to investigate a distress signal at LV-426. Elizabeth Shaw (Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Marshall-Green) are archaeologists who believe they have discovered an invitation from an ancient race drawn on the walls of long-dead civilizations. Hoping they've discovered a message from a race of beings responsible for human evolution, they gain support from the infamous Weyland Corporation and embark on a mission with a corporate crew to investigate the possible origin of our species.
Investigating the origin of our species and filling the movie with science vs. religion tones means you can expect some pretty heavy material. That is exactly what I want from my science fiction. The best science fiction films challenge the audience to rethink aspects of our society, in this case toying with the proposition that the human species is the result of alien intervention. And it was directed by Ridley Scott, whom most can agree has some incredible talent in terms of film and storytelling. So where did it go wrong? In my opinion, this is a pretty complicated answer. To start, the original ALIEN isn't so much science fiction as it was horror in a space setting. There were no grand questions or designs; it was an unstoppable killing force murdering the crew of a mining ship one at a time. PROMETHEUS attempts to be both. The first half of the film focuses on the science fiction elements and the second half shifts over to the horror we expected when Scott returned to the ALIEN franchise. As a result, the first half of the movie raises a lot of interesting questions and teases a few answers but the second half of the movie is when the mysterious black ooze takes over the plot and it becomes a stream of bizarre, horrible mutations and death. By the end of the movie, we've lost any chance of receiving the answers because it's suddenly about killing the crew and fulfilling the audience's blood-lust. I'm cool with that. I enjoy horror and I love science fiction. Just, you know, commit to one. Don't tease me with an intriguing story and leave me hanging.
Despite it's problems, PROMETHEUS was still a good movie. Scott is a talented filmmaker with a great eye for visuals and this movie is a great example. PROMETHEUS is an amazing looking film with fantastic production design and beautiful cinematography. Everything in the film, from the design of the PROMETHEUS ship to the alien tech and the Engineers, looks amazing. The cast is full of incredible talent as well, with Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, and Noomi Rapace (though Shaw is no Ellen Ripley) turning in great performances. The only casting misstep, and I'm sure you've probably read/heard about this elsewhere, was Guy Pearce as the 100+ year-old Charles Weyland. Pearce is a great actor but I've never cared for old age makeup effects and the ones in the film aren't the best. I kept imagining him as the 2015 version of Biff from BACK TO THE FUTURE. Needless to say, it pulled me out of the movie a bit. I've since seen the behind-the-scenes explanation about how Pearce came to the role (i.e. there were originally more scenes intended with a young Weyland and he was put in the makeup to match the character) but it's just a shame it turned out as it did.
The abundance of loose ends is a bummer but the movie itself is still great entertainment. The visual effects are fantastic, the creature effects are on par with the original's, and the performances make up for most of the script issues. There has been some chatter about another movie or two following PROMETHEUS that might bring the answers I hoped expected by the end of the film and, if the next films maintain the quality of PROMETHEUS, it's safe to assume I'll be in line for them too.