I had been looking forward to this film for a seriously long
time. Even when the only thing I knew was that it was (nearly) a prequel to Alien and called Prometheus. It was inevitable then that I would be disappointed in
some way or deflated when it came around to the cinema. Add to this a
Blitzkrieg style of advertising and this was made even worse. I should have
avoided all this and gone into the film cold, as much wiser people I know did,
but I didn’t. I can safely say though that I enjoyed it even if it took me a
while to realise.
The first thing that should be mentioned is the plot,
expanding the Alien mythology into
the existential and profane, verging onto 2001
territory. The script bites off far more than it can chew. Ideas are
bandied about unnecessarily and bluntly, lacking some of the subtlety that I
was hoping for. Still though it is intelligent, it conveys the surreal horror
of just how vast space and existence can be. Certain touches to the script are
fantastic though, mostly relating to Michael Fassbender’s David and without
spoiling anything a scene involving Noomi Rapace (you’ll know the one when/if
you see it) had me cowering in my seat. Overall though it lacks the streamlined
brilliance of Alien and the gritty
edge. In Alien the crew of the ship
talk as people do and even though the crew of Prometheus were on a scientific expedition they lacked something
that made them seem as real. Once you go down the road of comparing films to Alien though, the outcome is usually
pretty one way.
It has been said by everyone but I will say it again,
Michael Fassbender was great. In fact everyone was brilliant in it and it was
particularly nice to see Idris Elba utilising his immense talent more than in
his monosyllabic turn in Thor. I even
liked the 3D in this, it is the best I have seen, due I imagine to the 48
frames per second. I’ll leave the technicalities to those who understand it. My
only other problem is that the soundtrack to me, felt more like it belonged in
a Spielberg film, for me it didn’t gel properly. The soundtrack suggested
something much nobler than it was and obscured one of the more interesting
aspects of the expedition, its flawed nature.
Go and watch the film, let me know what you think but what I
will say is that it is best sci-fi to come out in a long time.
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