Those going into Prometheus expecting a direct prequel to Alien will be disappointed, but there’s still plenty to tantalize fans of the franchise. The movie begins eighty years in the future, when a pair of archeologists discover evidence that humanity may have been visited by aliens who left their calling card with directions to a distant planetary system. Flash forward a few years and we find ourselves aboard the starship Prometheus as it approaches the planet in question. The expedition team soon finds traces of an advanced civilization and they begin investigating. But, this being a movie that shares DNA with Alien, things go horribly wrong before you can say “space jockey!”
As several reviewers have noted, the movie is a sumptuous visual feast. I watched the IMAX 3D version and some of the aerial and space scenery is truly breathtaking. The ship itself is one of the film’s central characters and director Ridley Scott lets us explore its sleek interior at some length. The plot itself lacks the same polish. Supposedly intelligent characters do some incredibly stupid or inexplicable things that distract from the sense of dread that Scott is trying to build. And David the android (Michael Fassbender) is the only character who seems like more than a quick sketch. But while its failings are certainly evident, Prometheus never becomes tedious or predictable. Indeed, it offers several moments that are genuinely scary or disturbing. Prometheus is smart science fiction that could have been even smarter.
