"The most anticipated film of the year" is an incredible burden some times. Ridley Scott returns to science fiction with brazen confidence, but provides as many questions as there were answers.
Set at least thirty years before the events of Alien, Prometheus tells of a science vessel sent out into the far reaches of space by the mega-corporation Weylan industries, their goal is to find the answers of life itself: why are we here, where do we come from? Naturally what they find is much worse.
Prometheus looks great (even the 3D is decent) with gorgeous spaceship visuals and lofty H.R Giger-esque sets. Alien fans will be impressed, and I was sucked into the murky atmosphere when the team start uncovering the mysteries and discovering sights Ellen Ripley may later find.
For a 15 certificate there are some pretty gruesome scenes, specifically one which, like its predecessor, will stick with you long after the film's ended. A tip: don't go see Prometheus if you are pregnant... you'll probably lose a lot of sleep...
There is however an unforgiving amount of mystery, even after the film's end; if you are looking for answers to the Alien origin, you will get some but not all. I was a little put out by this, I hope Scott merely wants people to debate about it rather than spell it out (after all, part of Alien's charm was its mystery) but the "loose ends" here feel clunky.
The characters aren't half bad, lying somewhere between Alien and Aliens; they are unique and far from typical, but not fully fleshed out. There's a smell of a lurking "Director's Cut" about the script, several events appear to happen for sake of convenience, but could be explained with an extra scene or two.
I will need to watch it again, but I love how it is more Alien than its sequels, a more otherworldly science fiction than the popcorn gnashing sci-fi action flicks of today. As a fan of the series the film gave me a lot of new imagery I wasn't expecting but it does not ruin the franchise outright. There will however be a lot of confusion from the masses; Prometheus is unforgiving in its almost "arthouse" sci-fi mystery. This is Ridley Scott, not James Cameron.
I like it a lot, the atmosphere gripped me, the uncovering of old mysteries was chilling and the return to the Alien universe was welcome, but there's an unnecessary amount of questions raised, and some of the script felt missing.
Additional Marshmallows: The initial discoveries made by the science team on Earth include cave paintings on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. I was excited and amused to see familiar territory in a Ridley Scott science fiction film!
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