Before I get going here, let me admit I am a huge Ridley Scott fan.
Blade Runner is the gold standard for science fiction. Alien is arguably better and blends sci-fi with horror better than anything else to date. The Duelists is one of my all time favorite movies and is an unreal combination of a Napoleonic epic, an epilogue to A Tale of Two Cities, Alexandre Dumas, and Bruce Lee. Kingdom of Heaven (the director’s cut) is amazing and may be the only good medieval film ever made. Ridley’s even made arguably the best chick-flick ever in Thelma and Louise. The guy has it. A miss by him would be a win by everyone else’s standard.
But that’s unfortunately what Prometheus is; a miss. The film began life as a by-the-numbers Alien prequel that got sidelined when Fox started to develop Aliens vs Predator (which the assholes completely fucked up; all they had to do was make the comic book into a movie and they’d have made Avengers money). None of this would be a problem except you can tell. The different direction the story takes (from Alien) feels tacked on. The film wants to examine the nature of life on earth and life in general and it has compelling characters; but ultimately if falls short of its grand ambitions.
Most of the problem is that the middle of the movie doesn’t feel very well thought out. For instance, a scientist is lost in what appears to be a giant alien pyramid and encounters alien life. He sees what looks (and acts) like a eyeless king cobra rise from a puddle of black goo. What is his response to being confronted by the first alien life humanity has ever discovered? Well, he squats down and starts talking to it like it’s a toddler. What does he do when it bares large fangs and starts acting like a cobra does when its about to kill somebody? He inches into death range and continues cooing and tries to pet it. Damnit Archer! Its shit like that that reminds you, you are not watching a finished product. Though it looks spectacular, the lead actors give great performances, and there’s plenty of intelligent plot to go around; the film still contains an unacceptable amount of stupid.
What’s good?
Michael Fassbender is once again awesome. He’s a Bishop type android and he conveys a very amusing robot sense of not-quite-humor. Naomi Rapace is pretty freaking awesome as the lead scientist. She’s involved in some pretty gruesome self surgery that is the most disturbing and awesome thing in the movie. Idris Elba is pretty awesome as the seen-it-all pilot. Charlize Theron is also solid as the corporate oversight. Can’t knock any of the actors, they all brought their A stuff.
And the film looks amazing. There’s no debate there. The screenplay, however, is not worthy of the actors working it. Its like they knew what they wanted to start with and what they wanted to end with but just fucked the dog in the middle. And they supposedly spent years on the screenplay. Well, it needed a couple more.
All that said, you won’t be offended by the movie. It’s not awful by any means. And really, Naomi Rapace is always worth watching. And there are several scenes that have the stuff to be iconic. They’re just not roped together very well.
Verdict: meh.