Another Alien review, another bad shoehorning in of a tagline. I recently watched Alien: Covenant, and I still don't really know what to make of it, but my laziness meant that I still hadn't reviewed Prometheus, so here we are, making up for it while I get my head around Alien: Covenant. So with no further delay, the infamous kind of prequel to Alien, let's go.
Like Alien, Prometheus tries to keep it vague in its prologue, this time showing us a really pale guy drinking some nasty looking goo, then dying painfully and turning to dust. What is a really nice touch is how the title is slowly spelled out just like in the first Alien, even if CG DNA shit is way less ominous than the dark expanse of space. We then get an introduction to our two main scientists; Shaw and Holloway, as they dig around in a cave and find a cave painting that gets them all excited, but that's all a bit typical, so let's talk about the superb sequence where we are introduced to David, by far the film's most interesting character, as he keeps himself busy on the Prometheus while the rest of the crew sleeps. David is a fantastic character; he's a robot, yet he can think for himself, and is clearly trying to understand humanity, showing curiosity in human sentimentality, and trying to understand what makes him different from a human, while Holloway in particular throws a lot of Pinocchio allusions at him, underestimating David's pseudo humanity. Simply seeing him killing time on the ship, watching old movies, learning new languages, and grooming himself is really interesting, and he serves as a vessel for some of the film's larger questions. The crew has its highlights, but unlike the Nostromo crew from Alien, this crew is seventeen, which of course separates them into important people and Star Trek redshirts. Shaw is probably the most important character, a scientist with a near fanatical belief, and a huge amount of enthusiasm about finding the so-called Engineers, her character is also the most fleshed out in the film, as we learn about her past, the things that motivated her to this point, and deeper emotional problems that she has to deal with. This is a departure from Alien, whose characters were less developed, but relied more on the dialogue and sense of friendship they had with the rest of the crew, Prometheus also tries this, and is kind of successful. Janek's a pretty likable character, he has some great dialogue with his crew, and has an awesome speech before the final act that shows how intelligent he is, a point we'll get back to. really though the standouts of the crew are Shaw, David and Janek, the rest of the crew just don't have the same likability, level of development, or philosophical significance, Holloway is completely flat as a character, Vickers is good as the corporate woman, but that's all she is, and rest of the crew are either expendable or complete idiots. This is one of Prometheus' biggest problems; dumb characters, there's a scene where a bunch of people are all killed, painfully and in quick succession, and it's as if the film knows that they were completely expandable, in fact I don't know if any of them even had names. Then there are some characters that make really stupid decisions, like inquisitively approach a clearly hostile alien life form, that was fucking stupid, even the film's lead and eventual villain aren't above making dumb decisions, and dumb decisions wouldn't be a big problem if there was a rhyme of reason for it, but that's not always the case in Prometheus, and it's annoying, Prometheus also wants you to think that it's a smart movie, which really doesn't help.
Prometheus, despite the bad characters, actually is, at times, a smart movie; David's introduction aboard the Prometheus is a really interesting sequence, the central point of the story is a middle finger to evolutionary theory, and the questions that come from that are really interesting, questions involving the meaning of life, what life even is, and how easy or hard it is to create life. As the film goes on, more questions arise, like what motivated the Engineers, and what made them change their minds, what was their true nature, and the nature of the mysterious black goo that's everywhere in this film. The film is also loaded with less philosophical questions, like what was the giant head, or the mural and crystal, what really happened to the Engineers on the planet. These are all good questions, and it's great to see a film that challenges its viewers as much as this one does, and not give them the answers, but there is one question I have, which is what does this film have to do with Alien. Having seen Alien: Covenant, I know at least part of the answer to that, but on its own Prometheus does a terrible job of being a prequel; taking place nearly thirty years before Alien, on a different planet, not telling us anything about the origin of the Alien, or the reason the Space Jockey was on LV-426. For that reason I don't see Prometheus as a prequel to Alien, but more simply as a standalone sci fi horror film. On those grounds, it's much easier to forgive Prometheus' shortcomings, and appreciate what it gets right. One such thing is the visuals, which are stunning, Prometheus has some truly incredible visual effects; the sets are huge and beautiful to look at, the creatures all have a great sense of tangibility to them, in fact you'd be amazed at what things actually weren't CG, I certainly was, and the shots that are obviously CG look great too, even the curveball ending shows off some stupidly good visual effects. Ridley Scott's directing is also completely mesmerising, something I noticed while watching it at my friend's house for the first time, the wide shots are serene, the incorporation of CG has been done very thoughtfully, and the film as a whole is just incredible to look at. The more violent scenes are intense and up close, and Ridley Scott really knows how to show off those great sets during the less violent scenes. Is it better to look at than Alien, not even close, but Prometheus is absolutely beautiful looking, in all regards. Its less deliberate pacing might be an improvement for people who thought Alien was boring, and while Alien was definitely leaning more in the direction of horror than sci fi, Prometheus is very clearly more sci fi than it is horror, again making it quite the departure from Alien. As a result Prometheus is less disturbing than Alien, it has its own version of the Chestburster scene, and that's fucking vile, but overall Prometheus will definitely stick in your head with its philosophical questions, rather than the unsettling, disturbing atmosphere and imagery of Alien.
Prometheus is a flawed movie with some great ideas; the questions it asks you to think about are great, and the fact that it doesn't give you the answers is very bold for a film like this. It also comes with amazing directing, beautiful visual effects, and a provocative story and characters. Sadly that's also where it starts to fail, and where this actually pretty intelligent movie becomes really dumb; with disappointingly hollow characters who make ridiculous decisions, and an eventual villain that also makes ridiculous decisions, it really says something when the most interesting character in the film is a robot. With the failings of Prometheus in mind however, Prometheus is a completely enjoyable sci fi film, it's great to look at, and has an interesting story. What you expect out of Prometheus will ultimately determine what you think of it, know going in that this film does not tie into Alien like the label of prequel would suggest, and Prometheus is actually a decent film that's worth a watch.
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