In the 1979 Ridley Scott classic, Alien, the terrors were dark, mysterious and rarely seen. This isn’t the case at all in Prometheus, where the origin of the titular creature in Alien is explained, and new, even larger questions about humanity are raised. I’m glad that it was Scott who chose to revisit his own work rather than another director. Prometheus is not prequel so much as it’s a further exploration of the same universe, but little did we know just how vast this universe actually was. The film is an anxious, relentless, cerebral horror film. And make no mistake, it’s more horrifying than any of the previous installments in the franchise.
In the haunting opening images, a pearly white, perfectly-muscled tall humanoid called an “engineer” (Space Jockeys if you want to go by Alien terms) is dropped off by a ship and abandoned on a planet where he must carry out a sacrificial deed. Flash forward quite a long time to where explorer scientists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) have discovered ancient cave drawings of early humans communicating with beings from the stars. Aging tycoon Peter Weyland (a heavily made-up Guy Pearce) commissions Shaw and Holloway to lead a mission to a mysterious planet which has been mapped out in the cave drawings in an attempt to meet whoever made man kind and answer some of life’s essential questions.
In the two years it takes to arrive on the alien world, the robot David (Michael Fassbender) tends to the ship and studies the humans in a state of stasis. He takes it all in and he’s amused by human-kind. From the second he first appears on screen to the end of the film, David steals the entire movie. Fassbender’s performance has a curious gravity that makes him the most likeable character, regardless of his moral and emotional ambiguity.
Once on the planet, Holloway is quick to point out ant-hill like structures saying that “God doesn’t use straight lines.” But weren’t they going there to find god in the first place? Anyway, the team of scientists and David don helmets and head into the ant-hill like cavernous structure. The things they find inside lead them to evidence about the origins of mankind, but manage to raise even larger existential questions as the crew members are horrifically picked off one by one.
Prometheus is more grotesque any in the “series” to date (and it being part of said series is debatable). In tone, it’s most comparable to Alien but a lot more physically grounded and a lot less grounded philosophically. It’s open to some big interpretations. Aliens turned out to be more of a war/action film, and it’s true that there are elements of that thrown into the mix here too and Alien 3 and 4 aren’t even worth talking about. The images in the film are meant to be graphic and shocking, to create terrifying iconography that would stay with the viewer to leave the same impression that you would get experiencing “God’ close up for the first time yourself. What would you say to him? What would you expect him to tell you?
There are some ties to Alien, notably at the end (as to be expected) but the movie feels more like a spinoff within the same universe than a sequel. This works for me because it shows just how vast this universe can be. While the technology at the heart of the film and biomechanics are largely fantasized, they feel very realistic, and the film offers a very logical idea as to where we came from. This is where the movie really shines for me. Without ever giving a concrete answer, it guides us toward the direction of one viewpoint while still leaving the basic question of man’s identity in the scheme of things open-ended.
One of the most beautiful aspects of the film is that Elizabeth Shaw seeks to meet those who created her and ask them why. Holloway tells David that the humans made him because “they could” to which David tells him that’s an incredibly disappointing answer. Every base is covered from a logical standpoint. This is a thinking man’s movie for sure even though it still has the visual trappings and mild sense of humor of a big action blockbuster. Prometheus is a winner in my book, which is a big sigh of relief since I was greatly anticipating it. Not only does it serve as a fitting prequel to Alien which is just about as good as the original, but it broadens the horizons, makes the viewer feel small and leaves them asking all the right questions. Don’t miss this one.