When you walk into a Ridley Scott movie – Blade Runner, Alien, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator – you never know quite what to expect. In each of these movies, there is something you don’t see coming, some twist that takes you by surprise. In Scott’s latest movie, Prometheus, there are a number of those moments.
The story is set in 2089. From IMDB: “A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.” The clue is the discovery of the same image found in caves at archeological digs all over the world, a pictogram of a giant being beckoning toward the stars. As character Elizabeth Shaw says, the pictogram is “an invitation.” Come find us.
The stunning visuals pull you in immediately. You are there – inside the exploratory vessel known as Prometheus, on the surface of the strange planet where Shaw and her partner, Charlie Halloway, believe these giant beings, these titans, are located. And then you’re inside the hollow sphere of rock where they find answers – and more questions.
Elizabeth Shaw is played by Noomi Rapace, the same young woman who was Lizbeth Salandar in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She looks so completely different that I didn’t recognize her. I knew I’d seen her somewhere, but had to look her up. Her performance is outstanding. In one particularly harrowing scene, her fear and horror are so palpable that I was grateful we weren’t watching a 3-D version. Her character is well drawn – it’s her burning desire to know humanity’s origins that drives the expedition.
In scripts – as in novels, as in most storytelling – there are points where the plot twists. In movies, the first plot point happens about 30 minutes into the story and the second point occurs about 30 minutes before the end. Both points pivot the plot in new directions. Plot point 1 is when the character Meredith Vickers, (Charlize Theron), informs the two archeologists that even if they find beings here, they are not to engage them in any way. Since a corporation paid the trillion bucks for this expedition, Shaw and Halloway are employees of the corporation and she (Vickers) represents this corporation, so they are to do what she tells them to do. She’s the boss.
Uh-huh, sure. Theron is a plus for any movie, if only because of the way she looks. But in this film, she comes across as more robotic than David (Michael Fassbender), who is the actual robot, immortal, soulless. In terms of plot, David does something to Halloway that is never explained in a satisfactory way, except when he asks Halloway what he would do, the lengths he would go to, in order to prove that these titan beings exist. Later, David becomes Shaw’s only ally, but I was never really sure what his agenda is.
My only other gripe about this movie – and it’s small, really trivial – has to do with the flashlights. Given all the other stunning visuals and technology, why are the characters using flashlights that most of us have in our homes right now? Haven’t flashlights evolved at all? Despite my nitpicking, I loved the movie and sat there enthralled for more than two hours, alternately riveted, grossed out, and blown away by all of it.
We stopped by our local grocery store afterward to pick up some fish and I was so disoriented by this movie I could barely talk to the guy behind the fish counter. I kept wanting to say, Hey, I just saw Prometheus, and it’s a mind blower. But I didn’t. I didn’t say it not only because I was in a grocery store, but because I would have to start with Blade Runner. Even though that movie initially got lukewarm reviews, it has since been recognized as one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. And that’s the thing with Scott’s films. They grow on you, just like Philip K Dick’s stories (Blade Runner). When you leave the theater, the story and the characters shadow you, follow you home, snuggle into bed with you, infiltrate your dreams.
While it’s true that Scott doesn’t answer the ultimate questions – where did we come from? What happens to us when we die? – it really doesn’t matter. Clint Eastwood didn’t answer that question in his movie Hereafter. Martin Brest didn’t answer that question in Meet Joe Black. What Dreams May Come came close, but it was way too Catholic/heaven and hell and all that, for me. Movies tease you with the visuals, make you think they’ve got the answers, but in the end, they don’t have anything more definitive than any of us do.
In the end, it’s all speculative, maybe this, maybe that. But Scott certainly pushes the envelope by suggesting that Earth was seeded by the stars, that we are the progeny of alien life forms, that we may be, in fact, the end result of some sort of hybrid experimentation somewhere way back when.
Don’t take my word for it. Go see the movie.
Yes, I think there was a movie made about it. But the experiments were real and actually clinically performed over a long periof of time, and were written up in medical journals. There were the usual debunkers, of course, but the scientists and physicians who did the controlled experiments had impeccable reputations.
Please excuse my typos in the above comment. “credible FOLKS” was the intended word, along with a few other typing errors. Sorry, guys.
Regarding souls and their existence……we know there was a documehted, well-published, evidnetial experiment performed by extremely credible folds who were actually attempting to DISPROVE the existence of a soul. The gist of their scientifically controlled experiement was that they weighed a human body immediately prior to its demise, and then just as immdiately, weighed the body AFTER the moment of death. There was a loss of several ounces that could not be accounted for by the loss of bodily fluids that occurs usually within moments following death. Those fluids were also weighed instatly, and the rmeaining ounces had no accountability. This experiments was performed over a long period of time and was always the same. The soul exists. It has WEIGHT. It is some form of matter obviously resonating at a frequency we are unaable to visulaize but that can be weighed because it is MATTER. We are not soul-less creatures. Nor are we bodies who have souls. We are souls who have bodies. Last night I happened to see the tail-end of the movie SIGNS with Mel Gibson, being re-run on a movie channel. Low budget movie, few exciting special effects, but the storyline says it all. Not sure I’ll see Prometheus, but might change my mind.
Wasn’t there a movie with sean penn about the weight of the soul?
Thanks for the review. I can’t wait to see it.
You’ll enjoy it!
What a great review……..it’s 112 today, a great day to spend in the air conditioned theatre. Guess what I’m going to see!
I know it has nothing in common with this movie other than amazing visuals, but I found AVATAR a great effort to talk about philosophy as well. But there, the planet herself is the source of the tribe……of course, I loved that.
Avatar’s message was more spiritual, for sure. But on a day when it’s 112, definitely go see Prometheseus!
What an intriguing review! It makes me almost want to see the movie. My objection to seeing it is that I do not like the way the alien looks in the original films (I’ve only seen pictures, not the actual movies). I don’t like gross. Is this movie gross? How much of the film would cause me to cover my eyes? I’m serious. A movie like this could make it difficult for me to sleep at night, even if I saw the earliest showing of the day. It sounds intriguing but I don’t know why they have to make it gross just to create a reaction that some moviegoers like. Bleah!
In terms of movies about the ultimate meaning of our existence, I like “The Astral City”, from Brazil.
There are some “gross” scenes, but not like there were in the original Alien movie. Haven’t seen The Astral City. Onto the list it goes.
Great review. It’s on at our local cinema now – must get my tickets today!
I’ve been watching Ancient Aliens on DVD and this morning when I turned it on again, the first time since seeing Prometheus, the various talking heads were focused on how ancient aliens might have seeded the planet and how they might’ve wiped out the population one or more times through disasters they created in order to improve the genetic makeup. It’s the same scenario as the movie, and they even showed a DNA strand in the documentary, one that was similar in appearance to its counterpart at the beginning of the movie when the seeding of the planet was portrayed. A synchro.
I had similar problems as Trish with the plot. Apparently, the idea was that David the robot was soulless so he didn’t care about the consequences of his actions to fulfill Charlie Halloway’s wish to learn the truth about the aliens. But the bigger problem I had with the movie was a philosophical one. This movie portends to show the source of humanity as an alien biological project without addressing the spiritual nature of mankind – though there is mention of the soul. So if aliens created mankind, who created the aliens? Also, there was no reference to the role of consciousness in creation. Matter doesn’t create consciousness; consciousness creates matter. To think otherwise denies the existence of non-physical reality, our true essence. Of course, to mainstream science, what I just said is all nonsense.
As I wrote in my review of the film (on my blog), I agree it is a very entertaining film. It did have me engrossed for the whole two hours. However I did find the characterisation a bit flat, and like Rob in the comment above (This is Trish’s review, right?), found it a little strange that the human beings and aliens had no genuine depth to them (I didn’t find the Elizabeth Shaw to be as ‘attractive’ a character as Trish – maybe that’s because I can’t empathise with having a Cesarian abortion while conscious!). For example (spoiler alert!) when the last remaining alien is awakened from suspended animation, it takes him about 5 seconds before he starts going nuts and trying to kill everything in sight! Bladerunner is a much better movie, in my opinion, nd even though half the charcaters are robots (maybe even Decker), they are much more beautifully drawn than the characters in Prometheus.
Visually, though, the movie is stunning. It’s amazing what you can do with special effects nowadays. Certainly the Prometheus is worth seeing.
I agree with you about Blade Runner, Marcus. Philip K Dick is hard to beat, regardless of who you are as a director. It all begins with story. Yes, it was that C section segment that got to me! That and her realization at some point that she was
carrying an alien child. The way her hands shook.
Visually, it far surpasses Blade Runner. Then again, Blade Runner, redone with current technology, would win hands down. The robot remains one of the most enigmatic characters. We never really know his agenda; it morphs, transmutes, puzzles.
Re:
” When you leave the theater, the story and the characters shadow you, follow you home, snuggle into bed with you, infiltrate your dreams. ”
I hope that you are still talking about Charlize Theron here .-)
I haven’t had a chance to see it yet…I liked the first Alien,but didn’t worry about seeing the rest after seeing Alien number 2.
I think I’ll see it in 3-D though,if I do see it at the cinema.