Movie Review: PROMETHEUS (2012) – A Stand Alone Failure

OK, I’m a fan of the ALIEN Franchise as much as the next guy. However, I haven’t revisited each movie 4 times, so my knowledge of the Alien-verse is limited. Therefore this Review will stay contained to PROMETHEUS as a standalone film, and not connecting to the franchise. You’ve been warned.

Rating: 

2 Out Of 5 Stars

Regardless of the ALIEN connections, PROMETHEUS was still an important and anticipated film as being Ridley Scott’s return to a genre he mastered. However, so many things about PROMETHEUS just don’t work as a whole.

A story about the origins of our Universe is what PROMETHEUS is. 2 scientists in 2080-something discover a space map, which leads them to a planet far from Earth, in order to find beings, which might have created Humans themselves. Assembling a crew of experts in their fields, almost 10 years later, they go to this planet in a ship called Prometheus. What they find, and how they deal with it, is the backbone of PROMETHEUS.

Charlize Theron is in this, as the leader of the expedition, and she’s a little pissy with daddy issues. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

What the expedition discovers once they get to the Planet is more questions. Fucked up questions, which, to this day, have no answers. Weird things are happening, with little explanation and people are running around freaking out. I’ll attempt to give a rundown.

” lets get our explore on! “

The two boyfriend / girlfriend Scientists find proof that Humans do share the same DNA as the creatures which, they find dead in a cave on this Planet. Success! But no. Some weird snakes end up killing two of the Scientists who are left behind. The boyfriend Scientist is then poisoned with some black goo from the same cave, by David, (Michael Fassbender) the robot on the trip, and dies. Causing the girlfriend Scientist to freak out, then find out that she’s 3 months pregnant, despite having a barren womb. Freaking out further she forcefully gets this screaming squid creature yanked out of her with future tech. It’s an emotionally gripping scene which leaves you breathless.

i screamed! 😐

During all of this, David, who is a robot designed to be the Ships caretaker, discovers that 1 of the Alien-Gods is still alive. We find out later that David’s boss, Weyland, (Guy Pearce) the guy who funded the whole mission is also on the ship, and he wants to meet the Alien-God, as he thinks that they can prevent him from dying (he’s old). Oh, and he’s Theron’s daddy.

I can’t really tell you what else happens in PROMETHEUS, because it doesn’t make much sense to me, really. As a completely stand alone movie, without any ties to the ALIEN Franchise, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The story set up in this movie alone, doesn’t stand on its own and contradicts what we see, and how the characters behave. Even with hypothetical, off screen explanations of the characters’ motivations… it still makes no sense.

” I’m unnecessarily mysterious and creepy… “

David is shown as a cold and calculating robot. Understandable. However, his actions and motivations through out the film is so expertly creepy, but without any explanation. Why he poisoned the boy Scientist? Not explained. Why he seemed to want the girl Scientist to have the baby? Not explained. WTF is the Black Goo? Not explained.

Speaking of pregnant girl Scientist, NO ONE besides David knew she was pregnant. She told NO ONE about the fact that she left a live squid that she cut open from her belly squirming in a room on the ship. She just ran away, all bloody, put on her space suit and went out on another expedition like nothing was wrong. No one was even like ‘Hey… why are you so bloody?’ She didn’t even react to the fact that David sedated her against her will, and tried to put her into Stasis. Nope. She was civilly went out on another expedition with him like nothing was wrong. Which also leads us to…

this is how she looked… and no one noticed…

NO ONE was surprised that the old guy from the hologram message in the beginning of the movie, who everyone thought was dead… was alive and chilling amongst them the entire time. No one! It was just… ‘tra la la I’m here!’ and so be it.

Also: I don’t understand why Scientists in the future, are shown as mercenaries. I find it very difficult to believe that Scientists, ‘experts in their fields’, would give up 2 years of their lives in stasis, one way, without knowing what mission they’re going on… just for the money. And then you’ve got scientists who act like they’re the scum of the Earth. Really? Is it not better to have Scientists along who know why the fuck they’re there, and will work better together for a mutual cause? This logic escapes me.

” fuck you all… i’m outta here! “

All in all, PROMETHEUS made no sense to me whatsoever. Any sort of story link between this film and the Alien franchise was irrelevant as this story itself, in its own self contained Universe, made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

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