Despite it being hyped as Ridley Scott’s hugely anticipated return to the Alien franchise, it might be better to push that film (probably the biggest science fiction horror of all time) to the back of your mind as you sit in front of Prometheus. It does explain itself as a prequel to Alien but Scott does well to side step any A-B comparisons by setting this film on a planet not quite the same as the one in the 1979 original and having this crew harbour very different objectives to those of Sigourney Weaver and co 33 years ago.
Filmmaking is a visual art so I suppose that makes Prometheus a good film. Its immaculately well-designed sets and the thorough mise-en-scène certainly go a long way to immerse us in its world. Surprisingly, the CGI actually has a shaky start; the opening scene involving a hooded humanoid creature and a waterfall is probably the most iffy bit of digital trickery involved, possibly simply because it is also the only scene without human performers. However, once the real people begin populating the screen, the computer generated world smoothes itself around them with ease and it becomes effortless to trust in the authenticity of the visuals.
The same cannot be said for some of the dialogue. I don’t think it is quite the travesty that some reviewers have found it to be but it is a definite stumbling block. When it comes, the grandiose statements and lofty conversations about God, creation and existence aren’t too lengthy or out of place. Having said that, they are quite frequent and begin to grate in the way that you might suddenly find yourself able to visualise the writers sitting round a table penning the script rather than believing the words as they come out of the characters’ mouths. With a little more careful lacing around small talk, the big wow talk could be more effectively delivered and seem less contrived.
That said, it isn’t a major problem and doesn’t hinder the enjoyment of the film in any significant way. This is largely down to the acting of a great cast who manage to paper over the cracks in the script very capably. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender are particularly superb, as is Guy Pearce – this is just as well, as these are the three players who carry the weight of the aforementioned themes. Despite the rambling speeches, on a narrative level these themes are knitted together in accomplished science fiction fashion. Most important is that of creation.
Unlike the crew in Alien, who are part of a commercial mission mining for resources when they become unwittingly dragged into an extra-terrestrial nightmare, the crew of Prometheus are actively searching for alien life in the hope that humanity’s big questions (the standard “Where do we come from? Why are we here?” business) can be answered. Mirroring the relationship between man and maker is the droid David whose maker is man. Fassbender really does play David to perfection. A mobile version of HAL from 2001, he has all the flaws of understanding when trying to relate to his human creators as the humans do when trying to comprehend theirs. Rapace’s character Elizabeth is one of the hungriest to find the beings who may have seeded life on earth (whom she calls ‘engineers’) but at one point finds herself the engineer of a new life and, it’s fair to say, she doesn’t enjoy it much. This particular scene harkens back nicely to the kind of 1970s body horror that Alien mastered and links the big metaphysical topics of this film to the primal fears of that one.
Despite the snags, there is a level of filmmaking on display here beyond which any problems can be accepted as minor. Ridley Scott is so accomplished a director that he reaches that level with ease. Prometheus has all the magnificence of the very best sci-fi films but falls short of the visceral element required to go down in history as truly legendary. Nevertheless, it is a good solid film, rare in its ambition and scope. Worth seeing twice.
Jon Bates Writes 