Not Quite There: A Review of Prometheus

Arguably one of the most anticipated genre films of the year, Prometheus marks the return of British director Ridley Scott to the genre that basically launched his mainstream career. The film, set in the year 2093, tells the story of a scientific expedition into deep space to a planet where, it is believed, the origins of life on earth may be found. Leading this expedition, funded by aging tycoon Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) are archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), who have discovered, by studying ancient carvings and murals from lost civilizations all around the world of people worshiping giant, human-like beings pointing to the stars, a map leading to a solar system with a planet that may well be capable of supporting life much like that on earth. There are skeptics among them, like the geologist (Sean Harris) and botanist(Rafe Spall) who form part of the expedition, those simply doing a job like Captain Janek (Idris Elba) and his pilots Chance (Emun Elliot) and Ravel (Benedict Wong), and finally there are those who seem to know a bit more about the expedition than they are willing to let on, like Weyland Corporation executive Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), and android David (a captivating performance by Michael Fassbender). They arrive on the mysterious planet hoping to find some clues as to the origins of mankind, and, as is usually the case with movies of this sort, find something altogether different and infinitely more terrifying. In marketing this film, Twentieth Century Fox was deliberately vague about its narrative connections to the Alien film franchise created by screenwriters Dan o' Bannon and Ronald Shusett, even though this film was initially announced as a "reboot" of that same franchise, and even though there are obvious connections between this film and those that came before it, presumably in order to allow this film to rise or fall on its own merits. The film starts out with a pretty heady brew of ideas, like the questions of creation, and delivers some pretty striking if not necessarily iconic visuals such as the titular ship itself, Prometheus, and the inside of what appears to be a very old complex of some sort, but as it kicks into horror mode, the filmmakers bring us, well, those of us who have seen at least one of the predecessors of this film, into overly familiar territory with not much new to write home about. One can almost predict the order of people dying in this movie (and that's not a spoiler, I assure you), though if it's any consolation, the film quite mercifully eschews the cliche of having the African-American guy (or the Asian guy) die first. Apart from that, however, the film, and apart from its visuals, which still echo the designs of Alien designer H.R. Giger, brings distressingly little to the table that is new. I've seen B-grade sci-fi horror movies on cable TV that take bigger narrative risks than this film did, which is depressing considering that the original Alien all but reinvented the genre thirty-three years ago. Another disappointment is the performance of Noomi Rapace as Shaw. Scott raised a lot of eyebrows with his unconventional choice of a lead in Sigourney Weaver in the original Alien, but ultimately Weaver's acting chops showed she was well-worth whatever risk Scott took in hiring her, and in fact she was able to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress when she reprised the role in the 1986 sequel. Rapace, while arguably delivering a competent performance, is no Weaver, and Scott's first mistake was casting her as an Englishwoman. Time and again she drops the ball on her English accent, and it's extremely distracting. There are plenty of actual Englishwomen who could have essayed the role more effectively, and if Scott had really wanted Rapace he could have easily made a script tweak or two for her to speak with her Swedish accent. Also, while other writers have lavished praise on what they describe as her unusual beauty, all I saw was a slightly younger, better looking-version of Frances McDormand. Sigourney Weaver, with her strong jaw, is admittedly an unconventionally beautiful woman, but with her short stature and constantly vanishing British accent, Rapace's performance comes across as thoroughly unimpressive. Fortunately, however, the film is saved by a rather riveting performance by Michael Fassbender as Weyland's pet android David. It's a fantastic turn; he manages to come across as childlike, extremely intelligent and menacing all at the same time. This isn't a regurgitation of what's come before, or even of Brent Spiner's Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's a wonderfully textured portrayal, with the added bonus that Fassbender has conquered his Irish accent a lot more handily than he did in X-Men: First Class. His acting speaks volumes even when he isn't saying a word; the scene where he activates a hologram of charted space was, for me, the highlight of the film. Fassbender doesn't spoil it by uttering so much as a word of dialogue, and the thought that he's basically acting against absolutely nothing underlines how brilliantly he played the scene. Fassbender's performance, while certainly the most outstanding, isn't the only noteworthy one here. Charlize Theron is pretty effective as a not-exactly-bad bad guy, Idris Elba makes the most out of a somewhat thankless role, giving Captain Janek some emotional heft, and the rest of the cast do a pretty good job of being scared. Guy Pearce is virtually unrecognizable in what is practically a cameo role, but he most certainly makes his presence felt in his limited time on the screen. As stated, the movie doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, which is disappointing considering the expectations that have been riding on it. It's eye candy, that's for sure, and the earnestness with which the cast approaches the film certainly at least deserves mention, but even as a standalone sci-fi opus Prometheus falls well short of greatness. As part of a film series that features one of my favorite movies of all time, James Cameron's Aliens which featured taut, virtually airtight storytelling, this film is deeply, fundamentally disappointing. As strange as it may sound, I have now seen every film in the Alien series (not counting the ridiculous Alien vs. Predator movies) EXCEPT for the very first movie, Alien, so I have written this review without any intention of comparing Prometheus to its ground-breaking, Scott-directed progenitor. It simply isn't that good a movie. 3/5