Ending beginnings

Rating: 5/10 (27 July 2012)

After three decades of hit-and-miss Ridley Scott returns to what he did best - science fiction. With "Alien" an undying classic and "Bladerunner" arguably the best genre movie ever, high hopes were abundant and understandable for the Englishman's return to the source.
"Prometheus" retcons the appalling two "Alien vs Predator" movies, albeit the basic premise does throw us into recognisable Eric von Daniken territory of aliens creating life on Earth. Near the turn of the XXIst Century, after a couple of scientists, Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), discover that murals from across the world present the same star system configuration, the almighty Weyland Corporation embarks on a cross-planetary mission to discover the truth behind the ancient scribblings boarding a ship adequately named Prometheus. During the long voyage they are overseen by David (absolute perfection by Michael Fassbender), an android with his own game plan, one programmed into him by his 'father' Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). The ship itself is commanded by a brash, but enticing, Janek (portrayed favourably by Idris Elba), whilst the interests of the Weyland Corp. are looked after by Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), a detached, rigid personae, but without the power craze of most corporate stools inhabiting the Alien universe.
Fronted by the brilliance of Fassbender, Theron and Elba with a competent, if slightly underwhelming, performance of Noomi Rapace, "Prometheus" manages to divert attention for a lot of its apparent shortcomings for much of the movie. Nonetheless when the character count drops at an increasingly rash pace with a feeling of widespread underdevelopment of said corpses, the multitude of flaws overpower even the most rabid Alien fan with a lazy, rushed story, that promises and drastically fails to deliver. Despite some initial promise, especially after a superb opening sequence of David passing time in the depths of space, whilst the rest of the crew stays in cryosleep, characters are thrown in by the bunch-load, rushed through the motions and by the end viewers fail to connect with any members of the crew, basically making them disposable and their subsequent deaths a meaningless chore.
Part of the problem stems from the inherent attempt at detaching the story from the Alien itself and refocusing on the lore of the universe with the Engineers at the forefront (known more commonly to movie addicts as the 'disc jockey'). The severing off of ties seems too forcible, to an extent that implausibility is chosen as a path and even when 'an Alien' finally appears it isn't even 'the Alien', but some malformed re-imagining. Thrown into a movie reality, which likes to overcomplicate matters, Ridley Scott forgoes the more sensible simple route in connecting Prometheus with the 'Alien' universe, instead delving into a mutating cacophony of monsters, which lack semblance or reason. Ultimately he ventures into the absurdity of trying to avoid connect the dots between "Prometheus" and "Alien".
The script itself similarly seems to have undertaken some alien tampering, which piles on the mystery, mostly unresolved by the end credits, with several layers of plot holes and threadbare logical connections stinking up the conclusions. Scientists convinced that life on Earth was engineered, because they found a sequence of stars? And why would this sequence point to a military facility in the first place? A trillion dollar expedition jumping gung-ho into an alien compound without any protocol or line of command? Worms transported via sperm impregnating women, than fully growing like a foetus in the span of 15 hours? An alien facility covered with goo with nothing similar to living habitats? First flaming an infected individual to avoid him entering the ship, afterwards supplying entrance to a second such individual without any precautions? An Engineer hell-bent on murder after waking from 2,000 years of cryosleep (not to mention his psychotic attack after crashing the alien ship). The list endlessly goes on, as we are told to suspend belief in the script, which in many cases can be too much too bear.
Nonetheless the set design, cinematography and special effects do help to gloss over many of the faults, suggesting that "Prometheus" can be enjoyed purely as another decent popcorn flick. Given however expectations the disappointment is much larger, than that of watching another James Bond action packed thriller. As if to compensate for script shortcomings Ridley Scott does his best to deliver an eerie scenery coupled with some frightening, grisly moments, which verge on disgusting, but manage to instill an honest reaction from viewers.
The movie ends rapturously with mayhem and destruction, but with promise of a further, hopefully better, instalment. Nonetheless with such a disinterested outing it begs to ask whether further parts will not further devour the magic of the Alien universe. It is punishment enough that Scott ventured into the origins of his classic with such a dramatically underwritten flawed script.
Another big let-down is the promise of a otherworldly haunting legendary score fronted by the motif used in the "Prometheus" trailer. Unfortunately the said music features only briefly, what's more in such a way that my girlfriend actually missed it. Instead the movie offers a pretty standard forgettable score, which highlights what could have been. The concept itself wasn't a bad one, but the terrible connections made by the script cry out for a more well-rounded, less flamboyant, Engineer holding the reigns.