Prometheus
DIRECTED BY RIDLEY SCOTT
When the teaser trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus hit the web last December, sci-fi aficionados were justifiably jubilant. Not only did it confirm that Scott’s long-awaited return to the genre, contrary to studio denials, would be a prequel to Alien (the director’s seminal, 1979 space-horror masterpiece), it also invited fans of the franchise to anticipate a similarly taut, visceral, visually arresting experience. Lamentably, with the finished film now upon us, that tantalizing minute and ten seconds remains Prometheus’ most potent incarnation. Breathtaking production design aside, Scott’s feature-length cut fails to deliver on the teaser’s pulse-quickening promise.
Where does Prometheus go wrong?
A distinct lack of dread, for starters. Among the 17 crewmembers who set out on an ill-advised voyage to contact humanity’s apparent extra-terrestrial progenitors, the final casualty rate is admittedly substantial. But so too is the prevalence of outright stupidity. Characters are constantly doing their utmost to hasten their own demises (poking at substances, objects, and menacing appendages that patently ought not to be poked), which undermines audience investment, and frustrates Scott’s efforts to lend the film a lingering air of tension.
Prometheus is also hobbled by a vastly inflated sense of purpose, and pauses frequently to belabour various Big Existential Questions. (The script was co-authored by Damon Lindelof, of TV’s infamously enigmatic Lost.) If the film’s philosophical ambitions are admirable, the clumsy manner of their expression is decidedly less so, and their ultimate shallowness is a genuine disappointment.
As is the film’s handling, or non-handling, of some far more prosaic questions. We’re left to wonder, for example, why the expedition’s robot butler (Michael Fassbender, who, along with Scott’s stunning vistas, steals the show) appears, puzzlingly, to be running the same treacherous subroutine as his Alien android counterpart. And we’re left similarly unenlightened as to the motivations of Prometheus‘ true antagonists—seemingly solely to drum up interest in a mooted sequel.