Ridley Scott's 'Prometheus' - A Review

Rating: 3/10 (7 June 2012)

For a film that has been highly anticipated, for over 30 years, Prometheus doesn't quite live up to the hype. If you have never seen the original Alien, then this is an okay stand-alone movie, to fill that quiet rainy afternoon, but If you are a die-hard Alien fan, then I am sure you are going to be sorely disappointed. I am not entirely sure what Sir Ridley Scott was trying to achieve, or where he was trying to go, with the story, but I think that too many ideas led him away from what he was trying to do. The story itself seems to be 'borrowed' from other movies and there are many correlations to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unfortunately, this doesn't help the movie, as it is never clear which storyline the film is trying to follow. The cast of characters are varied and many, too many in fact. as many of the characters are superfluous to the story and serve no real purpose, apart from to draw your attention away from how bad the script is. There is a scene where one of the missing crewmen returns and attacks the crew of the Prometheus, which does nothing for the storyline, except to keep the viewers awake. The actors themselves seem to do little to help this, with Idris Elba almost sleepwalking through his role as Janek, the Captain of the Prometheus. Guy Pearce is almost unrecognisable under some serious prosthetics, as the elderly Peter Weyland, which he is probably thankful for. Charlize Theron plays one of the coldest characters in the movie, but she isn't given the dialogue to complete the character of Meredith Vickers, the daughter of Peter Weyland. Michael Fassbender, on the other hand, steals the show as David, the android created by Peter Weyland to ensure the completion of the mission. His performance is strong but subtle with an almost sinister side always close to the surface. It is this character that leads us through the majority of the story. The set design is impressive and is based on the work of H.R.Giger, as in the original. The scares, in the movie, are few and not that scary, as there is no real sense of terror or suspense. The ending is bound to upset a few of the 'die-hard' Alien fans, too, as it raises more questions than it answers, leaving me to wonder was this the first of two or more prequels to Alien. The soundtrack, by Marc Streitenfeld, struggles to keep your attention, except when samples from the original Alien movie are stitched into the new score, as if to remind you that you are watching an Alien movie. Which was quite helpful as, about halfway through the movie, all I could think about was Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Of course, the CGI is excellent, as would be expected of a Ridley Scott Science Fiction movie, but even this can't save the film and, at 124 minutes, I couldn't wait for it to end.
All-in-all I would give this film 3/10.