One of those films that leave you thinking over the years

Rating: 10/10 (29 June 2012)

There is soft and hard cinema. The soft type answers everything within the length of the movie. It ties up all ends and solves all issues so you leave the theater thinking "what a great moment I had", but 2 or 3 hours later you can't even remember who starred the film. Hard cinema compels you to think and makes you not to end up only with what it is showed but to go beyond, pick up the crumbs left on purpose here and there and "build up the argument", a kind of "dyo" film. They are slow digestion movies
Prometheus is hard cinema. Sadly edited by the Hollywood production machine that needs canned and structured products (monsters, gore and familiar dramas) for the spending masses. Is a dramatic and spiritual story told from a sci-fi perspective (it could have been done as a totally different genre, drama for example). Is one of those films that doesn't show you anything, but has it all. Whatever you end up having as a result of watching it, is whatever you were able to grasp based on your observation and dedication skills. Constructed around a fictional world and within the latitude that's usually given to the sci-fi genre, Prometheus speculates, wanders and permits itself to leave unanswered questions and scientific mishaps without caring much about if the result is something believable or not. If you wanna see hard, true science, tune Discovery Channel o NatGeo or read Science and Nature.
The mission to LV_233 it is not a scientific mission. Is a corporative one. In fact, is not even a corporative mission, is a leisure trip funded by a tycoon in search for a chance of having eternal life. No financial profit or scientific hypothesis testing is being searched here, just the rants of a spoiled rich man. In order to achieve that rant he manages to gather a group of people that drive the ship, execute the logistics and navigate through the cosmos to the wanted destiny.
The captain and his crew drives the ship. Ellie and Dr. Halloway navigate it (they know where they have to go and are really the played pawns in this story) and the rest, apart from David, just execute routine logistic tasks and the takes on the hard labor. A special case is Dr. Vickers, another spoiled brat that seems to be there just to make sure that his father, Mr. Weyland, dies in the odyssey or just gives up the throne of the company once and for all.
Ellie and Dr. Halloway, which along Mr. Weyland are the ones that really have a goal with the trip (including, maybe, David), move the mission up to its fulfillment searching, with immature and innocent passion, the origins of the human kind. The Creators. They are based only on hunches, fueled by philosophical and even religious beliefs instead of scientific ones, and that's why they lack the typical professional behavior that we see on scientists. The two of them are just a couple in love that have the same interests and they are on a romantic adventure to the stars. They are the most candid and lovable people of the group.
A great question here is David, from which we can't know for sure if he is self programming over the course of the events or if, which is much more mysterious, he's been programmed by "somebody else" who is not even mentioned in the film.
The engineers themselves are the great mystery of the film and is good it remains that way by the end. If by the ending one would have already know about

why and for what they created us and what were they pretending to do going back to earth with the "black parasites" shipment - who are they, where do they come from and what were they doing on LV_233 - why the big fella of the end reacted the way he did against the humans - what the hell did David say to the soldier-engineer that drove him mad

one would, yes, leave the theater satisfied and ready for a BigMac, but rest assured that you would not have a movie so interesting and profound to see for at least 10 years, which is more or less the time we always have to wait for a film to set a landmark in movie making again.
Prometheus PRESENTS the facts and the characters, relating them and leaving all the mysteries ready for a sequel. The depth and amount of subjects it triggers don't fit in a 2-hour movie.
Wrapping up, I leave you with a couple of bullets stating why I think this movie is more about philosophy and religious drama than a typical popcorn sci-fi movie

the "creation" of life on Earth at the beginning (or at least the "push" needed for life to initiate) - the recurrent appearance of religious references all along the film (the cross, the baby Jesus at the pool table, the "tombs" that Dr. Halloway names at the "big head" chamber, the father figure issue on Ellie's and Vickers cases) - the idea of paradise in the words of Ellie's father and the wish for immortality of Mr. Weyland - the almost insignificant piece of information that the remains of the dead engineers had approximately 2000 years old and, taken into account that the events happen on 2093, results in the conclusion that whatever happened to the engineers happened more or less at the same time that Jesus lived – and died - that the events take place on Christmas.

If you join all these things you'll see that makes this a film about beliefs, religious myths and existential matters, not a movie about monsters, space terror and science. The framing maybe technology and cosmic terror, but the content is purely philosophical. Which is the core of a good old science fiction story.