OK I'm just back in from seeing Ridley Scott's new film Prometheus, a sort of prequel to the events surrounding his original horror classic, Alien. There has been plenty of hype and interest surrounding the film and naturally I was quite curious to see how it would stack up to the original Alien, so here's a bit more about the plot. So I will warn you now:
SOME SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!!
The film starts with the crew of the spaceship named Prometheus being sent on a mission to find a race of ancient aliens on the planet LV223, the ship was built and funded by the CEO of the Weyland Corporation, Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce). Two of the crew members, Doctor Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her partner Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall Green) have discovered a star map, which leads them to the planet, in hope of finding out the answers to their existence, as they believe that the alien species they call Engineers, may have been responsible for the creation of humanity. The crew go to the planet, travelling in cryogenic stasis, as the ship is manned by an android, David (Michael Fassbender), the other crew members include, Weyland employee, Meredith Vickers (the gorgeous Charlize Theron) and the Prometheus ship's Captain, Janek (Irdis Erba).
When the crew awake, they go out in groups, wearing spacesuits and helmets, due to the harsh and airless conditions of the planet surface. The crew find an alien spaceship which they enter, and soon discover a chamber that is filled with strange pods, a monolithic statue of a giant head, and an alien corpse. As a sandstorm whips up outside on the surface, most of the crew members abort their search of the ship ahead back onboard the Prometheus. However two of the crew members who broke off from the rest of the group, Fifield (Sean Harris) and Milburn (Rafe Spall) are still trapped inside the alien ship, now lost, but on re-entering the chamber, the pods leek a black liquid, and the two men are attacked by snake like creatures. Back onboard the Prometheus, David has taken one of the pods back with him, he opens the contents, which contains a strange gooey looking Cephalopod (an octopus in otherwords, just being a smarty!), he takes a sample from the pod. David then speaks to Charlie and offers him a drink, and drops the sample into his drink, without Charlie's knowing, who soon becomes infected. And before you know it, it all goes pear shaped, as the next day the rest of the crew go out to look for their two crewmmates, Fifield and Milburn in the alien ship, and on returning to the chamber they find Milburn's dead body, and David meanwhile searches the ship and finds a room containing an Engineer, one of the alien race, in stasis. And from here things don't get any better....
As a much anticipated movie, which is basically a prequel to Alien, Prometheus for me fell a little short of the mark. There are some good ideas in the film somewhere, but the film doesn't explain the origins of the alien creatures well enough. And the whole searching for answers behind why we are here, and who created us is a bit silly, as I think it would be better if they were just in search for alien lifeforms. The alien humanoids themselves, or the Engineers as they are known, are also rather poorly realised, and later on the one that is awakened by David, is nothing more than just a heavy, which stalks and attacks the humans. And alien creatures, are like a bizzare octopus, and they are far from the frightening and intimidating aliens from Ridley's original classic.
On a repeated viewing however, I did enjoy the film a bit more, and one or two things did click a little bit better. The way I understand it now is the Engineers used the planet LV223 as a ground for their laboratory, in which they created the aliens, or biological weapons, but the aliens turned against them and killed, hence the one remaining engineers. And the idea is that the Engineer intends to return to Earth with the cargo of aliens, so he can destroy the population of the planet and regrow it. However if the aliens are such a threat to the Engineers, then why do they want to return to Earth in the first place??? As surely its as much a threat to them as it is to us, although the Engineers clearly have their own planet, and this is basically just one nasty science experiment. The bit at the start of the film with the Engineer drinking the dark liquid is actually the most confusing bit of all, as what is that scene trying to tell us? Is the Engineer comitting suicide?? Is he making a self-sacrifice to create humanity using his own DNA??? It just isn't very well explained. Perhaps in the sequel, which is due to follow in the near future, might help explain the origins of the Engineers a bit more.
Although on another repeated viewing (as of 14.06.12!) I have a theory that as Shaw was impregnated with the first baby alien, then it shows that the humans were responsible for the creation of the alien creatures. And perhaps the reason the Engineers wish to return to Earth is destroy the human population with the aliens, so that way the humans can no longer exist to create the alien race. But that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either! So it is a bit of a mind-fuck.
Performance wise, things are not too bad, Noomi Rapace is good in her role as Elizabeth Shaw, the doctor, who finds the star map of the aliens, and she does well in what is essentially a version of Ellen Ripley, the main protagonist, who has to fight for her survival. Irdis Elba is also fine as the gritty Captain Janek, and Charlize Theron plays the duplicitous Weyland employee very well (and doesn't she look great in that outfit! Or any outfit for that matter!). But the best performance comes from Michael Fassbender, who plays the android, David. Its also a rather neat touch that David's character has a somewhat malicious side, despite his supposed emotional detachment, he intentionally infects Holloway with the sample of the dark liquid by slipping it into his drink, as he clearly has a dislike for Holloway, who keeps taunting him and winding him up for being an android. Guy Pearce also does well with his role as Peter Weyland, the CEO of the Weyland Corporation, and it took me a second viewing to even realise that it was him wearing that make-up as an aged old man!
Ridley Scott, while he has made a few dull films of late, has with Prometheus made a film that has quite a few interesting ideas in it, and visually it looks stunning, with some excellent CGI effects, although the aliens aren't that well realised, but the spaceships, the alien ships and the sets are all great. The film also has one or two suspensful sequences, particularly the scenes where Filfield and Milburn are attacked, and the rather shocking scene where Shaw has a "foreign body" implanted in her, and she has to perform an emergency medical procedure on herself! Its a scene you won't forget in a hurry! Also worthy of note is the excellent music score by Marc Streitenfeld (who has composed most of Ridley's most recent films) which is quite atmospheric, haunting and sinister.
So Prometheus is far from a disaster, and on a repeated viewing it is actually quite good, but it does have a few problems and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and while its nowhere near as good as the 1979 horror classic, it definitely is worth watching.
And that's itttttttt.
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