Prometheus movie review: Ridley Scott back with a bang, and then some
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By any definition Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is a bona fide classic. It fascinated and terrified audiences in their droves, was a game-changer for the science fiction and horror genres and has sustained many years of critical kudos. But to say it was recognised as a “classic” at the time of its release, despite generally favourable reviews, is another thing entirely.
“You won’t see anything very original in the film,” wrote The Guardian’s Derek Malcolm. “Alien is not the seminal science-fiction film one wants from him (Scott),” complained New York Times critic Vincent Canby.
Now 74, Ridley Scott returns to the in-space-nobody-can-hear-you-scream genre he helped create, and anybody marred by the psychological scars inflicted by such belated dross as Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) knows all too well how these time warps can pan out.
Prometheus, for which hopes could barely have been set higher, is deliberately ambiguous in many regards but makes one message resoundingly clear: Ridley Scott should have stayed in space. It’s his first great film in over two decades.
The story hovers around a crew of explorers who awake from a two year slumber on a ship in “the darkest corners of the universe.” They have a rather sizeable brief: to discover the origins of human existence.
Billionaire corporate tycoon Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) funded the trip after the discovery on Earth of ancient cave wall paintings depicting non-humans and a star map; all that’s missing from this scene is a cameo from Werner Herzog explaining that these pictures were lifted from a hidden wall in Ze Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011).
The crew, headed by cap Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and Weyland’s quasi-son David (Michael Fassbender), a robot perfectly textured to resemble a human being, begin exploring the environment outside the ship and make some shocking discoveries. When the action and intensity gathers momentum, and Scott returns to put a fresh twist on some quintessential Alien cues – i.e. an outer space operating table – the results can be electrifying.
Michael Fassbender’s enigmatic presence takes the top gong vis-a-vis performances, the audience uncertain whether this curious creation is a force of good or bad or just is; a blank, unfathomable, unreadable juxtaposition to the more hysterical supporting roles.
It may come as no surprise that Prometheus is atmospherically dazzling in a way that makes your eyeballs want to have a cigarette, zip up their pants and go out for breakfast afterwards. Scott’s visual approach, a deft combination of Alien’s sullen slow-moving moodiness and some whiz-bang state of the art salad dressing, doesn’t omit a whiff of Michael Bay’s chaotic “fucking the frame” mentality, which has had a corrosive effect on how contemporary action sequences are shot and edited.
With long, slow and patient takes, Scott’s cameras are not fucking but seducing, soaking up a magnificent futuristic mise en scene and using 3D in the best possible way: for subtle manipulations of layer and depth.
Whispers of Shivers (1975), The Thing (1982), Blade Runner (1982) and of course Alien echo in the film’s visual and story inventions, but Prometheus’ existential “where did we come from?” core gives it more scope and ambition than any of those films; note the way it observes, through visions steeped in Christian ethos, the ritualistic act of drinking from a cup.
If that ambition is never fully realised, you can hardly blame Scott for not answering the riddles of existence. Instead the thematic focus is on searching and questioning. Like 2001: A Space Odyssey the film has a compelling cyclical structure that presents loud entertainment commensurate to a capacity for wonder; this time around, in a much darker and more insular sense. In its final act, the plotlines of Prometheus detonate pockets of bedlam, but even the zanier story tracks link back to classical cause-and-effect structure in ways that don’t treat viewers like 12-year-olds.
To borrow the title of Scott’s 2006 chateau-set wine swilling drama, 2012 has been A Good Year for appreciators of blockbuster science fiction, with director Andrew Stanton’s under-watched and under-appreciated John Carter taking audiences to the moon (well, Mars) and back. Like a great bottle of red, these two films may need to age and breathe before they get their deserved distinction, but it will come. That applies double to Scott’s stunning return to form.
Prometheus’ Australian theatrical release date: June 7, 2012
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Seeing it on the 6th and can’t wait…but damn Luke i just sat through the most painful 45 mins i could bare of the loathsome and pretentious Burning Man ( a pristine example of everything wrong with Aussie features at the moment) and discovered your misguided glowing review on Rotten Tomatoes…
THAT alone makes me worried for Prometheus..
Glad you enjoyed it Luke but genuinely puzzled. I’m afraid this one is getting worse in my mind the more I think about it. So much that genuinely doesn’t make sense – and not “2001″-style ambiguity, just good old fashioned dumb or nonsensical or unmotivated or never properly explained poor screenwriting.
As a resolute non cinema goer, I shall have to wait for it to come on TV. In the meantime, I continue to enjoy my 4 treasured VHS tapes.
I really love Prometheus!! Can’t wait for the sequel!
Thanks for teh review. Quite the opposite of the one in The Age, which gave it two stars. I guess I will just have to see it and make up my own mind.
This metaphor:
really doesn’t work BTW. I frankly have no idea what you’re trying to say.
I read the review in the Age too, but despite that, I’m still going to see it, definitely. It will be the first film I will see this year. Fortunately, it’s only June … Should I confess that the last film I saw in the cinema was Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows Part II?
Ruh Roh! Using the under-appreciated John Carter analogy (& subsequent wine metaphor) in talking up Prometheus should have the alarm bells ringing!
I like Prometheus, as long as I don’t think about it.
A beautiful looking disappointment.
It’s a borderline – 6/10
Doesn’t bode well for the Blade Runner sequel.
So are you saying that Prometheus is atmospherically dazzling in a way that makes me want to vomit? What a grotesque turn of phrase you have.
I really wanted to like this. And in some respects I did: it’s nothing but a triumph of production design and effects. But what a huge steaming heap of a disaster of a screenplay… what a waste of resources. So many elements of the story were promising, had the makings of a truly great work; but so many times, the writers chose the cheap solution, ratcheting up the implausibility and wasting a great, great opportunity.
A movie where there are many wonderful individual scenes, but which is an incoherent mess as a whole.
I don’t watch a film and pick it apart as I watch it…yeh it had flaws but it was a splendid and trip. I find the complaints a bit pathetic, the dialog was nowhere near as bad as the whining suggests..
My favorite film this year….and as someone who saw Alien as a teen the year of it’s release.
Very meh.
I had high hopes for this tonight especially with all the hype surrounding it. It is visually stunning but the plot is terrible, the script not much better and the acting just lame. Like someone above said this could have been so much more such a waste.
Not sure if I’ve ever seen a movie so blatantly be left open for a sequel either. The first 45 min or so just dragged on and then had to squeeze so much into the second half of it which ended up making the film feel rushed despite being two hours long, it really should’ve been a three hour job. Not obviously being part 1 in a two or three part saga.
I give it 5 or 6 out of 10 purely for said stunning visuals and the Engineers being pretty interesting, despite how little they’re actually in it. But I’m sure we’ll see more of them in ‘Prometheus 2: The Engineer’s Revenge’!
yikes – I am so confused. Will I like it or won’t I? What there should be in this forum is some way of indicating how many people actually agree with the various postings, like has Jacques got it over Dantes, or not? We should have “like/dislike” say or even “agree/disagree” buttons? That would be one sure interesting way of starting a discussion that even RS might be interested in.
Luke! I love your reviews. And this one was no exception. I saw the film with about 6 friends who hated it, pretty much, and myself and one other person enjoyed it. I think Aliar Jones is correct in that by picking out all the negative aspects people tend to overlook the good, and although I agree it may not have the best script it is far better than many shitty blockbusters I have seen, such as 2012 etc.. After seeing Bladerunner at school and vaguely remembering the Alien films I enjoyed the self referencing and the themes of existence etc no matter how far fetched. After all, does anyone really go to a film like this, one which is designed for mass consumption and is obviously more of a ride than an intellectual experience, expecting so much?! I suppose they do when it is the director of Alien, but that is a shame.
Also, I enjoyed the eye ball post-coitus joke. How is that not funny?
This is the litmus test of reviewers for 2012. Well done for giving it green. Like most of the reviewers who famously panned Alien in ’79, those who pan Prometheus in ’12 are going to end up looking like grumpy old men.
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