Prometheus

Prometheus: Brilliant but Ambiguous

Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) aboard the ship Prometheus (Courtesy of Collider)

Recently, the sci-fi sensation of the summer, Prometheus, was released for home media. Ridley Scott, director of the first film in the Alien franchise, directed this movie as well, and teases the audience with possible connections to the landmark film series. Fans of the well-known franchise will see these references, while for everyone else, it’s a new experience altogether.

Prometheus tells the explosive story of the crew of the spaceship (appropriately named Prometheus) that explores the possibility of extraterrestrial life on a distant planet. The traces of these aliens lead Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her boyfriend/partner Charlie to believe this extraterrestrial race may have been the “engineers” of life on Earth, and eagerly get funding and a team behind them to get all the answers to their life-changing questions. Predominantly, why are we here?

As can be expected in a movie about aliens, it’s not long before the crew realizes the danger they are in and the catastrophic threat these aliens pose to humanity. As crew members disappear and die in mysterious and unexplained ways, Elizabeth is left to stop the inhabitants of the planet to return to earth, or else lose her home planet in the process.

Prometheus is incredibly well made, as a sci-fi, a horror, a thriller and a drama. It holds nothing back and is restless with its eye-popping and sometimes overly gruesome violence. It is very effective though, in part due to the acting. Charlize Theron gives a brilliantly cold performance as Meredith Vickers, the head of the exploration team representing the sponsors of the voyage. Michael Fassbender gives a noteworthy performance as the android David, whose performance will probably go down as one of the most convincing performances of a non-human character in film history. Finally, Noomi Rapace’s performance was a haunting embodiment of Liz Shaw, and in my opinion, has a very good chance of getting her an Oscar. It would have scored a perfect 5 out of 5, but there is a major issue with the movie.

While I recognize that ambiguity in sci-fi is what drives the plot along, leaving most of the questions brought up in the film unanswered results in the viewer feeling empty. This movie was not confirmed a sequel until after its release, so until that announcement, there was no guarantee a sequel would be produced. However, it’s my impression the filmmakers knew very well they would get that sequel, and purposely left so many issues unresolved to both secure that sequel and ensure the audience was filled with millions of curious viewers waiting for their questions to be answered.

Cha-ching!

As I said though, as a whole the movie is well directed and fantastically acted, features breathtaking visuals and set pieces, and is flawlessly filmed and edited. As a movie buff, I also appreciated the references to the original Alien franchise. Ultimately, though, the ambiguity makes a negative impression on the final rating of the movie. Expect to go into this and see great acting and effects, but primarily, to prepare yourself for the sequel.

Rating: 4/5