Prometheus (2012) - Ridley Scott

Synopsis:

After studying a plethora of cave paintings depicting the same star map across all ancient civilisations, scientists believe they have found man kinds creators. A team of experts, funded by the Weyland Corporation, head to a moon named LV-223 to meet with their makers. What they find however, is something much more sinister.

Now.. I don't mind being the first to admit that I am a huge alien fan boy. So to say I was excited to see this film is an understatement... I was buzzing! But I've had my hopes up and then dashed before so I was holding out for a similar affair here, just in case. Thankfully, Scott didn't disappoint. He came here guns ablaze for this prequel/ separate film with alien DNA/ opener to a new franchise that runs parallel to the alien series. In all honesty, it gets confusing, in that it creates more questions than it solves answers. But that's not in any way shape or form a bad thing. Some may not see it that way, but if it means a sequel, I'm all for it. The mythos of the xenomorph (the alien in Alien) and the Space Jockey has been expanded flawlessly. If anything, it did answer the questions fan boys across the world were calling out for. Then in a stroke of genious they went ahead and added to it, leaving us more in the dark than we were before. But now there's such a richness to the franchise that you cant help but want to drink in every last bit of it. You'll notice if we look at the Alien Quadrillogy they've thoroughly run out of ideas by the time Resurrection comes along. What Scott's done is create a fertile world which could potentially grow and escalate into one of the greatest sci-fi saga's of all time.

I'd have to advise that it you don't know much about the Alien franchise then at least watch the first Alien so that you can pick up on areas that may otherwise leave you in the dark and unable to truly appreciate what's going on here. I loved the the way the story has evolved. If anything its a whole different breed to the Alien films which makes it fresh and yet still carries the components that made it such an engaging series and so brilliant in the first place. Firstly, it goes to a scale which we haven't seen before, both in terms of action and story. I mean, a journey about discovering the origin of our species, it doesn't get much bigger and potentially deeper than that. Understandable then that they couldn't get every ounce of detail into just this one film. What it did do though was open so many doors, and windows, and letterboxes and chimneys that we end up completely drenched in story, both in terms of what's revealed to us and what's left for us to ponder (until the next outing, which I will pray for nightly, comes to fruition). In this sense the script is solid. That air mystery still shrouds it, something which made the original Alien such a classic. And where we get new questions about our history and are still left pondering the origins of the specific derelict space craft in Alien we at least know about the xenos, the invisible soul of Prometheus. To be honest, I can see no better way of explaining their origins, it was done absolutely... 100%... perfect, a triumph of narrative and storytelling.

This film can be faulted in places however (although it's only minor) compared to Scott's first sci-fi outing. I didn't see the need for such high-tech gadgetry. I understand that Ridley Scott couldn't see into the future in Alien and predict what things were going to look like but I liked the whole feel the Nostromo had with it's 70's style computers and displays. It's only set about 110 years in the future, Prometheus only 90, how advanced would we be? It would make sense that this gear would be a bit clunky as we begin to make real advances in space travel. Prometheus tended to ignore this on most occasions and slapped us with such advancements there's no way you could realistically relate to these people who essentially seem so alien with their technology.

I was also a little annoyed that this only garnered a 15 rating. It's not that I'm deranged and I want my characters killed off as sickeningly as possible. But the very sexual nature of Gieger's designs and the life cycles of these terrifying monsters is without a doubt warrant for an 18 certificate, particularly here in Prometheus where the deaths are so sexually malevolent that it makes me question how badly society has been numbed to what they're seeing on screen. But I'm not going to complain, it's this essence of the film which layers on the horror value ten fold and when you add that to the familiar claustrophobic confines found underground on the planet LV-223, you've got a recipe for success.

Overview:

Words can't describe how hyped I am after seeing this film. It looks brilliant and is able to expand it's diegesis into the infinite blackness of space itself. I should probably mention that the last minute of the film nearly had me screaming allowed in the cinema due to my eyes experiencing too much awesomeness.

Rating:

★★★★