Review: "Prometheus" needs not to answer why

"Prometheus" R
Ridley Scott returns to the Alien universe in this science fiction thriller, which takes it on like a reboot without getting bogged down with the thing too much. It has all the right elements and pushes the buttons that would please most science fiction and horror fans and visually is quite striking and wondrous. Despite the premise of it trying to explain the origins of humanity, it is not about to, as one writer is Lindoff from Lost, and everyone knows how that went. The story opens on some planet in the past where a strange humanoid alien drinks a cup of goo and is turned into mulch that fertilizes the planet. Cut to the future, only about 70 years from now, when apparently star travel has been perfected, and a team of archeologists has found a map leading them to the LV system. A ship is built by mega corporation Weland, and it is sent to the barren system, possibly Zeta II Reticuli from the Alien movie. They never do explain the LV, but note the planet in Alien was LV426, and this is LV423. (Either they forgot or they are implying that the two planets are moons of that ringed planet from Alien). The ship, the Prometheus, lands on the planet with a kind of half baked crew, led by a stone cold Charlice Theron, (who could be a Replicant from Blade Runner, ha), and one of the scientists is the actress who played in the original Denmark version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The robot is named David, which is both poetic and ironic, and he is kind of nuts. Some Alien fans objected to the crew being kind of inept, but note that they were privateers. In the opening scenes they indicate they've come because they are seeking possible treasure or glory, so it's not like they need to be model astronauts. What they find on the moon is a strange installation where some giant aliens, (not Zentreadi, ha), have left behind some of their cache of stuff, and the humans being curious break into it, resulting in some reawakened primordial X Files like black goo shape shifters (but not like in Carpenter's The Thing). The Space Jockey pilot is discovered in a rather dead state, but something is alive down there, and it's mean. Now Alien was more haunted house in space, and this is haunted spooky pyramid and other spooky things. Is it a masterpiece? Well everything Ridley Scott did works, but you can tell that some of the other writers had no idea what they were doing. Still it was a very good movie. It's not a great movie. Also there is a truly disgusting scene involving a medical pod which makes the chest buster scene from Alien look like a routine gut ache. It all leaves some unanswered questions but to expect a science fiction thriller like this to actually answer 'why are we here?' is expecting too much. Once you reveal the wizard where can you go? You don't want to do Star Trek V and having some floating God alien. It would have been ludicrous if they actually had that. Glad they didn't.

Review by Adam Browne