The Testament of PROMETHEUS

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2012)

It has been over thirty years since director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Black Hawk Down) made two highly influential, game-changing science fiction films, Alien and Blade Runner. Now he revisits his earliest triumph, Alien, not as a sequel but as a kind of prequel that has threads connecting both films. An intelligent science fiction film with elements of horror, Prometheus embraces bold concepts of human origin and its creation by 'ancient astronauts'. The film is not quite a classic, but should thoroughly satisfy purists and general moviegoers alike.
An archaeological couple has pieced together remarkable clues from early human drawings revealing a stellar map that may lead to the source of mankind. The couple, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), join a crew and its Captain Janek (Idris Elba) on a two year mission to a mysterious planet aboard the spaceship Prometheus. Financed by the Weyland Corporation and represented by Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), the only non-human on board is an android named David (Michael Fassbender). Prometheus lands near some structures which, upon investigation, reveal evidence of life, but the discovery has startling implications leading to a desperate struggle for survival that threatens the earth.
The film is not without some surprises and plot twists, and without giving too much away, Scott likes to end his films with an ambiguous sense of hope. There are some unanswered questions, however, and there is one glaring injustice that gets lost amid the film's fascinating conclusion. One pivotal, incredible scene involves a remarkable, graphic emergency surgery that strains the limits of credibility, but nevertheless holds the viewers' agonized attention.
The story has a compelling setup and when the crew goes inside the structure, they discover a series of chambers that takes the journey closer to potential answers or deadly threat. It's like the ultimate funhouse of terrors. It's also a safe bet that nasty things happen when curious humans meet invasive, alien life forms.
Having to live up to its predecessor, Prometheus builds its own fascinating world and broadens storyline implications for future films. It's not Alien, whose novelty and groundbreaking creature designs stunned audiences, but there are certainly enough connections to draw parallels between the two films. Alien is referenced in several ways including bits of dialogue, a sampling of Jerry Goldsmith's original theme, and culminating with markedly familiar set pieces. (Ironically Alien itself was a big budget reworking of a B-movie, It the Terror from Beyond Space.) The film does feel a bit derivative at times and borrows liberally from other science fiction classics. The early scenes where David is the only conscious crew member who wiles away his solitary existence with basketball, watching holographic dreams of the hibernating crew, and admiring Lawrence of Arabia, harken back to the Discovery crew of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Some scenes are not original as they seem lifted right out of Alien vs. Predator, Leviathan and various episodes of TV's The X Files.
Fassbender, who shines in the film, does a very convincing job imbuing his android with almost human characteristics and a potentially sinister side. Think of 2001's disembodied computer HAL and you get the idea. Strong female leads are a staple of Scott's films (Thelma and Louise), and Rapace is a strong female heroine whose faith is sorely tested amid personal loss and her obsessive hunt for the truth about mankind's beginnings.
Cinematography has always been a strong point in Scott's films, and the film's stunning visuals display the planet's otherworldly beauty. The production design is imaginative particularly inside the structure with its myriad of biomechanical architecture and impressive special effects. Swiss artist H. R. Giger, who designed the original Alien monster, contributes a bit of reverse engineering that fans will appreciate.
Prometheus is a thought provoking adventure that not only can stand on its own, but rises tall among most science fiction films. It's a visually impressive epic with an ambitious agenda that doesn't completely work, but even so, this antecedent to Alien is a worthy bookend to the series.