After
several decades spent away from the genre, Ridley Scott makes his triumphant
return to sci-fi with the much anticipated Prometheus. Though the marketing approach sought to
create a connection with Scott’s original Alien, the actual connections are few. Although it takes place within the same
universe, the direction of the movie is totally elsewhere.
In
Prometheus, we follow Holloway and Shaw, two archaeologists on Earth who
discover ancient cave drawings around the world. Normally, there would be nothing to it, but
they find strong similarities between the drawings despite being oceans apart. They interpret these drawings not just as
pictures, but rather as a map to our supposed creator or creators. With this in mind, they, along with a crew
from the Weyland Corporation, embark on a journey galaxies away, following this
map to our supposed creators. They are
led to a moon called LV-226 (not to be confused with the more familiar and
xenomorphic LV-426), where they quickly discover strange dwellings, once
inhabited by titanic beings. Being on
alien planet, it’s not long before our heroes and friends become prey to some
unimaginable force. But through this
adventure, some big questions are raised... will they be answered?
Prometheus
is quite an ambitious project. Aside
from the Dark Knight Rises, it is probably the movie with the most intrigue
built around it, with a story shrouded in secrecy, before its release this
year. It is not a perfect movie, but it
is a perfectly good movie. Ridley Scott
uses science fiction to captivate an audience – something I haven’t felt in
years.
When
thinking about this movie, tonally, it seems like something in between the
original Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens.
It is not a teeth-grinding, suspenseful horror film like Alien and it
isn’t an action-packed rompfest like Aliens.
It is something with a lot thought and something methodical. But that’s
not to say that it too, isn’t a gripping movie.
There are some scenes that are filled to the brim with tension and
terror. However, those moments don’t
define the overall direction of the whole piece.
The
movie itself is akin to a journey, with a strong focus on exploration and
discovery. It is in a way scientific,
and as such, it poses questions. Science
is in itself an exploration of a question.
Though answers are sought for, they are not always delivered. Prometheus follows the same path. Questions are raised, but not many of them
are answered. What this creates is an open forum and a discussion of ideas and
philosophies (check out the Reddit discussion here).
It
is possible that the whole movie may have just been a preface into something
larger. Much like with Ridley Scott’s
original Alien, perhaps he was paving the way for another. There’s a good part of me that hopes that
this isn’t true, and that this would be it.
No franchising or sequels. Not
because it’s bad and that I don’t want to see more. But I like the open endedness of the story. It’s something you don’t usually find
nowadays, ESPECIALLY with mainstream Hollywood, big-budget releases. There’s a lack of boldness in film these
days, and I feel Prometheus works to bring some of that back.
Til
next time, later geeks.
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