Movie Review: Prometheus

Ridley Scott seems to slip back into his science fiction director's chair with ease. Despite the thirty years since Blade Runner, it's as if he's never been away and has raised the sci-fi bar in doing so.

In Prometheus, we follow archaeologists, Dr Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her partner Dr Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), who discover a series of ancient cave drawings that seemingly point to a single location in space: a distant moon, LV-223 (not the same LV-426 from 'Aliens'), where they believe it is home to an ancient truth about humanity’s origins. However, when the team arrive, it quickly becomes clear that what they thought they were looking for isn't what they find, but what they do may have perilous consequences for humanity.

We do revisit parts of the Alien mythos - like the Space Jockey and the derelict spaceship - and it's definitely not weakly explained away like The Phantom Menace did with The Force (a high midichlorian count?!). But the Space Jockey is the main element that links Prometheus with the film that started it all.

Noomi Rapace does well in the part of Shaw, including some difficult scenes, as do the rest of the major players; Charlize Theron, Idris Elba and Logan Marshall-Green, but it is David (Michael Fassbender) that steals the show for me. He plays the part very cold and calm, almost serial-killer like.

From the sweeping opening exposition, Scott grabs you and takes you along for the ride. Exquisitely shot, leading you along but not for the sake of the shock-jump-out-and-scare-you-silly scare as payoff, and with a fascinating science fiction storyline from co-writers Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, plus a rousing musical score by Marc Streitenfeld, Prometheus, puts quality sci-fi back onto the screen again, and I would place this alongside Duncan Jones' 'Moon', as both are at the top end of the quality sci-fi scale, in my opinion!

One tip though, take this movie as is, if you're a fan of the Alien movies, don't go in expecting more of the same. There are parallels sure, and it is set in the same mythos, but it certainly is no clone of the previous movies.

***1/2 out of 5