A few years ago, Ridley Scott announced that he was making a prequel to Alien. A few months later he announced that due to budget concerns, it was no longer an Alien prequel, but a science fiction film that takes place in the same universe (same crap, different turd).
As it turns out, the film is very much a prequel to Alien, but not necessarily in a direct sense. It does in fact, take place in the same universe, and features the Weyland Corporation (not yet Weyland-Yutani, but we'll get to that), and their synthetic humans, but more importantly features the "space jockey" (that weird looking dead guy looking through something similar to a telescope in Alien), now referred to as an "Engineer". Also featured are a bunch of humans, who, as usual, get themselves killed horribly.
The film opens with a very tall, pale skinned humanoid figure in a robe standing near a waterfall. He opens a rather mysterious device and it reveals a bowl filled a dark, bubbling liquid, as a spaceship in the background flies off. As he drinks from the contents of the bowl, he keels over in pain, and ultimately collapses into the waterfall, dissolving as he does. We then see strands of DNA in the water changing and mutating, leaving us with the implication that in his death, he was responsible for the creation of humanity. Cut to the year 2089 and an archaeological team (two of whom are lovers, portrayed by Noomi Rapace of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Logan Marshall-Green who's had a number of small roles) have uncovered numerous writings over the world supposedly painting the way to a world among the stars, and finally, in the Isle of Skye, get the last piece of evidence they need to secure funding for an expedition off-world.
The Weyland corporation finances a ship, crew, and voyage to the place the writings indicated, a moon known as LV-223. You find a fairly typical crew among them, a few nerds, a loving doctor, and a fairly rough-around-the-edges geologist, and the captain (Idris Elba, phenomenal as always), a very smart, yet very cool man. Also among them is the corporate tightwad, Vickers (Charlize Theron in one of her better performances) and the synthetic David (Michael Fassbender, the scene-stealer). Landing on the moon, the discover their share of Engineer artifacts, but then come to realize that some things are better left untouched.
I can't go any further with the story without revealing spoilers, so I won't do that until later in the blog when I give my opinions. This will go into the more technical parts of the review here and will remain spoiler-free.
Ridley Scott is not only a highly-talented director, he's also one of the greatest producers who ever lived, up there with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in that respect (though he's a better director than both, I feel). As such, there are virtually no flaws with the sets, the CGI, the lighting... anything that has to do with how the atmosphere of the film is created is incredibly top notch. The ship feels very real, the holograms that feature heavily are believable (as is the characters interactions with them), and everything has a very well-grounded feel to it. The ship seems to be fairly realistic to an outside observer; according to some of the production notes, the designers looked at a lot of NASA and European Space Agency research papers and sketches when creating the Prometheus herself.
Also according to production notes, green screen was done as little as possible, and as much filming as could be done was performed on a set or on location. Filming was done in Iceland, Spain, and in studios in England, and it pays off quite well. Unlike Avatar and its magical CGI world, which awes and amazes audiences but has so little weight to it, Prometheus is exceptionally believable. You feel like LV-223 may actually exist and that you may actually go there and explore it, maybe even build a house there - not that you'd want to, but you could. If Avatar was supposed to be proof that CGI can do anything, Prometheus is proof that physical sets and real locations and usable props will always make a higher quality film.
The audio is very well done, too, with a simple score that fits the tone of the film and does its job very well (it seems there are ever fewer standout scores these days, but this one is adequate) and effects and vocals and screams that never seem to reach out and shatter your eardrums even in the mightiest theater. But even when the movie slows down and is more dramatic than suspenseful the levels are brought up and you can hear the dialogue and actions quite plainly without ever have to stretch for it. While some movies like to grab your attention with the flashiest action and effects and the loudest music, Prometheus knows you're here for the story and for the cast, and it relies on them to hold your attention more than it does explosive action, and rewards your patience with a very well balanced film.
Speaking of the cast... I am thoroughly amazed. While Ridley Scott movies never disappoint, Prometheus features some of the best acting in any of his films to date. Noomi Rapace, who hasn't been seen much by American audiences (unless you sat through the entire Millennium series in its native language), puts on a very solid performance here. Her character is not a weak woman by any means, but is definitely no hero. When things go bad she just tries to survive despite the very harsh circumstances around her. In fact, much of her motivation is simple survival. Logan Marshall-Green, having had a few minor performances here and there, such as in Brooklyn's Finest, Devil, and a fair role in the TV series Dark Blue, does a wonderful job here. He's a scientist, but he's the hyperactive scientist, the guy who wants to jump in feet first and just go for it. He brings a certain energy to the movie that would otherwise be lacking and the film would suffer for its absence; he also has a pretty good chemistry with Ms. Rapace. Idris Elba shows up here in a smaller but important role as the ships captain. He's a very intelligent and yet also very charming man, and the crew (as well as the audience) warm up to him almost immediately. Frankly, he's one of the best parts of the movie in my personal opinion, whose subtleties the film would suffer without.
Charlize Theron shows up and plays the corporate tightwad, but from the get-go you have the feeling she has her own agenda here. As usual, she's quite stunning; she's definitely one of the most attractive women in Hollywood, but in this film she is also quite the frigid bitch, very cold hearted and with little care for anyone and anything aside from herself and the bottom line. However, the ultimate performance in this movie comes from Michael Fassbender. You simply cannot guess as to his motivations. You are told very early on (in case you hadn't already gathered) that he is an android, but throughout the whole movie you have no friggin clue as to why he does what he does. Is he programmed this way? Is he heartless? Does he hate everyone? Does he care about the people but is forced to do these things anyway? Does he simply care about his own survival? And no, you don't get an entirely satisfactory to these questions, either, which is some of the beauty of the film and of his performance. It will keep you guessing all the way to the end and in the car on the way home as well.
Now, the film is rated R. The big question is, is that a hard R or not? No, it's not. It's not like any of the Alien sequels with their language and gore, dropping only one F-Bomb to my recollection. It does, however, have a few gory and brutal moments to it that did warrant an R rating, but nothing particularly over the top. While Noomi Rapace does spend some time running around in her underwear, it's not sensual, it's just because of circumstance in the film and she's still fairly well covered. Frankly I don't see why any fifteen year old shouldn't be allowed to see this movie. Anyone who does see this movie will get their money's worth; it's right about two hours long, and while it can be a little slow at times (especially in the beginning), it's a very, very good movie in every respect and of all the major releases up to this point is the chief contender for 2012's film of the year. This concludes my actual review and now I will go onto my opinions. There are spoilers ahead, so if you haven't seen it yet, continue reading at your own risk.
SPOILER ALERT.
One theme I noticed being played up was religion; once they find the Engineer's writings on Earth, the existence of a God is called into question; "Well, if these aliens came and created us, all religion is dead and useless!" seems to be the basic argument. But actually the movie handles it pretty well, using much the same counterpoint I would have come up with - I believe in my religion because I choose to believe it. Not because I was programmed that way, because I was forced into it, or because I feel an obligation, but because I choose to believe this way based on things I've seen/done/read. Having been raised in a Christian household myself, when I finally became mature enough to make my own decisions, I still chose to be a Christian based on what i'd seen and done through my life up to that point. Prometheus makes much the same argument in that we believe in something because it's what we've chosen to do. The same can be applied to Muslims, Buddhists, Evolutionists, etc... That's not going to change overnight just because some outside force/circumstance shows up and challenges what we think we know.
Similarly, this raises the point that the Engineers had to come from somewhere themselves. If they created us, who created them? Were they created by a deity, or another race? These are some of the questions the crew of the Prometheus intends to ask the Engineers when they find them, though these questions quickly become moot as it turn out the Engineers are quite malicious, the one survivor they find quickly dispatches most of the crew and intends to unleash a form of bio-weapon on Earth. But this is the most unsatisfying part of the movie - why? Why would they destroy humankind, which they themselves created? Of course, why create them in the first place? That question was asked by David (the android) to another crew member, and the answer was simple enough - because we could. Why create new life? To test ourselves, to see what we can accomplish, to see how far we've come... but why turn around and destroy it? That's the question the movie ends with. Literally; Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender get their mitts on an Engineer ship and intend to track them down to their homeworld and ask them why. That's how the movie ends.
Though this gives us room for a sequel, it still leaves audiences worldwide wondering the same thing. Why destroy us? My dad (I took him to see it with me) seems to think it's because they're afraid of us; humans are capable of great compassion, great intelligence, and great violence, all in the same day. Perhaps the Engineers are afraid of us, perhaps they feel we could surpass them. Personally, I think it goes back to "because we can". They were clearly testing all sorts of bio-genetic engineering, creating all sorts of life forms as we see in the film, and some of them were in fact trying to kill their creators. It may be they were in fact afraid of humanity, trying to destroy us before we destroy them, but having gone over the events of the film, I don't think that is the case. I think that either a) they were destroying us purely for the sake of doing it, or b) they were testing other life forms that they created and wanted to see how they'd fare against humanity. And, given one of the action sequences in the film where the surviving Engineer goes up against one of their creations, I don't think humans would have much hope.
And yes, we do finally get to see the origins of the Xenomorph from Alien! Right before the credits roll, a fairly good-sized beast bursts its way out of the Engineers chest. It looks quite similar to the one we know from Alien, but it does look a bit different. We know that they take some characteristics from their host, so this is apparently how they look coming from an Engineer. No telling if it was just a drone or a Queen, and that may not have much to do with how the story goes from here, but we do know that the Xenomorph and its respective family members were created by the Engineers; maybe as a weapon, maybe as a high-school science project, but they're here on the galaxy now, and it won't be pretty for the rest of civilization. Why?
Because of the company, that's why. See, Weyand Corp. spent a trillion dollars (yes, a trillion dollars/credits) putting the ship and crew together and funding the expedition. They payoff would have to have been equally epic in order to justify the trip and given that the ship and almost entire crew were lost, the company's future would be very much in doubt. One could safely assume that it wouldn't be much longer before the company had to declare bankruptcy or do some kind of emergency measure to save themselves, so it's easy to see from here where the Weyland-Yutani Corporation comes from. They had to do something to save themselves. And, given that the Prometheus tried several times to get a message to Earth, and I do believe one of them succeeded, they would have been most interested in an organic compound that can transmute matter and, of course, artificially-created life forms that could be used as weapons. Having spent trillions on finding these people and having lost their CEO and President, they'd want to find some way of recovering their investment. Still, their actions over the course of the series and the way they treat their people, they're pretty lamentable.
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