A movie with a vision

Prometheus (2012)
Certified: 16
Duration: 124 minutes
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Rafe Spall, Sean Harris, Logan Marshall-Green
KRS release

Prometheus will be marked down as one of this year’s most important films.

Not only for its box-office clout which I believe will be strong but for a lot of other reasons primarily being Ridley Scott’s return to the sci-fi genre.

This film is a sort of prequel of the classic 1979 classic Alien; it has its visual sumptuousness, sense of vision and, most of all, original ideas that it presents on screen.

Like Stanley Kubrick’s films, it is designed to provoke as it delves into the question of the origin of the species.

The year is 2093 and we are on board the interstellar spaceship Prometheus.

Scientists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway (Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) had made quite a discovery four years before.

They have found examples of earth cultures from the distant past, all in veneration of what looks to be an extra-terrestrial being of human form and this has formed a sort of star map.

Now they are on their way to a far off moon where they will find the truth about what they call “space engineers” − those who might be responsible for the creation of the human race or at least influenced its course.

The trip is funded by an unscrupulous investor named Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) while Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) is in charge of the mission.

Due to the distance being travelled, a small crew of the Prometheus is in space travel stasis.

David (Michael Fassbender) is the android that watches over them. The crew includes captain Janek (Idris Elba), geologist Fifield (Sean Harris) and biologist Milburn (Rafe Spall), among others.

When awakened they find themselves on a moon and about to start exploring a structure that is in the shape of a pyramid.

Interned inside are bodies of the so-called “space engineers”.

The structure contains mysterious canisters with a material that is seeping out and soon they discover that not everything is meant to be explored and discovered.

Prometheus excels in its vision and approach and only falters slightly in its character development.

However, this is more than made up for by the way Ridley Scott takes on the film’s premise.

The picture is meant to provoke the audience, reminding us that science fiction is not just about entertainment but more about setting targets and questions that will influence the future.

Prometheus boasts a uniformly excellent cast.

However, one actor stands out and that is Michael Fassbender.

One of the best actors of modern times, Mr Fassbender’s android character seems to have more in common with the replicants from Mr Scott’s classic Blade Runner (1982) rather than the androids from the Aliens franchise.

His David is almost servant-like in his qualities but he slowly starts to develop and evolve so that by the end of the movie we see him almost get a kind of machine-like ego.

Prometheus is a visual spectacle and one should not miss it at the cinema.

The film does not go down H. R. Giger’s classic dark and twisted designs of the original but pro-vides hints of it. I was never sure what Mr Scott was going to come up with when this “prequel” was announced.

This film lives in the alien mythology but is not really about the aliens; it’s more about humankind’s search for answers about themselves and about God.

It’s a film that sets the questions and will definitely require multiple viewings to be properly analysed.

Mr Scott has come up with a very different film for the franchise that has spawned already two classics with his 1979 piece and James Cameron’s 1986 follow-up.

Prometheus is an addition to forward thinking and innovative science fiction and is, above all, a movie with a vision, something very rare these days.