THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
We all know how Alien has lived on as a masterpiece in each element it represents. With all the sequels that came after, some began to scratch their heads and wonder, how were the iconic xenomorphs ever conceived. In Prometheus, we get partial answers that may or may not be satisfying.
PLOT
The 2012 film takes place in a fictional 2089 and follows archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw & Charles Holloway who discover a star map in Scotland they interpret to be humanity's forerunners they call 'Engineers' due to the map matching other unconnected cultures. Weyland Corporation CEO Peter Weyland funds their operation aboard the titular vessel where they follow the map to the distant moon LV-223. After 4 years of traveling, they arrive to their destination. Besides the butler android David and Weyland's estranged daughter Meredith Vickers who acts as company representative/leader of the expedition, the crew includes: Captain Janek, co pilots Chance & Ravel, medic Ford, geologist Fifield, biologist Millburn, four mercenaries (Branwell Donaghey, Vladimir Furdik, Shayne Steyn & CC Smith) and four medics (Florian Robin, James Embree, Eugene O'Hare & Matthew Burgess). Although Vickers orders to not make contact with engineers should they find, the crew explores a tomb filled with stone cylinders, a statue of a humanoid head and a decapitated corpse. Fifield & Millburn try to return to the vessel when getting uncomfortable with the discovery. The others are able to return in time before a storm halts the expedition. As they leave though, Shaw & Ford retrieve the head while David secretly takes a cylinder. When he investigates the cylinder, he finds oozes of black liquid which he exposes to Holloway, who claimed he would do anything for answers. After Shaw examines that the engineer's DNA matches that of a human, she has sex with her boyfriend. Overnight, Fifield & Millburn remain lost in the structure and are unable to get back to the vessel due to the storm. As they continue roaming around, they get killed by a serpent that crushes Millburn's arm with ease and exposes Fifield to corrosive fluid that melts his helmet. By following morning, the crew find Millburn's body while David finds a control room containing a surviving engineer in stasis and a holographic map containing coordinates to Earth. The crew quickly returns to base when Holloway rapidly sickens. Not wanting the outbreak to spread, Vickers kills him via flamethrower. When Shaw goes through a medical scan by David, he reveals she is 3 months pregnant which surprises her since she infertile. Not wanting to put her health at any risk, she puts herself through a C section and removes a squid like fetus from her abdomen. When she leaves it for decontamination, she finds Weyland himself who had joined in expedition in secret, wanting to personally ask the engineers how to not die from old age. After Janek defends the base by killing a mutated Fifield who kills the mechanics, he shares his theory with Shaw that the engineers used this planet as a military base for their biological weapons they lost control as, which is proven through pre-recorded holograms. When David takes Weyland to the engineer in stasis, Janek discovers the structure is housing a spacecraft. David wakes the engineer and tries to explain what Weyland wants, but the being responds by decapitating the android and not only killing the CEO, but also Ford and the mercenaries. Shaw quickly informs Janek that the engineer wants to exterminate Earth with its weapons. This leads to him making a sacrifice alongside Chance & Reval to crash into the other craft in order for it to not leave the planet. Vickers avoids the collision when ejecting via escape pod, but dies when failing avoid the impact of the engineer's collapsing ship. After Shaw successfully avoids the ripple effects of the collision, she goes to Vickers' lifeboat to get a new suit to breathe in, only to be pursued by the engineer. Luckily, she is able to save herself by surrendering him to her squid offspring who kills him via ovipositor. After the mayhem appears to have concluded, David informs her there are more ships in the planet and can help her go back to Earth if he's reassembled since he learned to pilot them. She agrees to help him, but instead wants to go to the engineer's home world to still get the answers she wants. On the same page, they depart from LV-223. The film ends in a cliffhanger where a giant alien bursts out of the dead engineer's chest.
THOUGHTS
Looking back at this, it’s hard to say I knew what I wanted because I wasn’t exactly curious on what was gonna come from it. The only thing for sure was remembering it whether we like it or not due to Ridley Scott returning to helm the franchise, previously directing the very first film. What he and co-writers Jon Spaihts & Damon Lindelof get to do is create a fascinating journey to say the least. Although you don’t get the answers, you’re still intrigued on how this half of the story plays out. The biggest strength we appreciate this movie for is all the technical aspects that exceed expectations, which is expected in the 21st century. The visual effects and production design that bring life to the fictional planets, the landscapes and even the ships are god damn outstanding to look at. Dariusz Wolski’s cinematography is able to bring so much life to the scenery no one could prepare for. It’s crazy to see how the search for the reasoning behind our humanity only paved the way for and inevitable monster and the prelude to the infamous xenomorph was quite a shock. The engineers are still imposing figures from the costumes alone because they have unprecedented goals that they don’t plan to change and beings with immovable determination are indeed something to fear. They alone are the preludes for what we end up seeing later on. The hammerpede serpents gave me chills solely off of re-triggering anyone’s ophidiophobia. Than the trilobite was a shock to behold because from seeing its disturbing birth to its shocking growth overtime was a way to tell us you can’t control what you create. All of that building up the deacon that is basically a xenomorph prototype was a downright shock because it also shows us the inevitable can’t be stopped. While all the monster elements are what nail the horror aspects, I think the overall story is telling something bigger: It is our naivety and arrogance that lead to irreversible mistakes that could’ve been avoided. In my theory, the engineers made the decision to destroy their creation because they weren’t satisfied with the evolution we took and wanted to finish what they started. The engineer may have not succeeded, but the fact anyone else were to wake it up could’ve and doomed us all lays out the message clear that some truths are better left alone to avoid dissatisfaction. That is the inner conflict that the ensemble of characters go through and it wasn’t smooth as they wished. As the movie’s final girl, Noomi Rapace has us root for Shaw because it’s her faithfulness that drives her to seek the truth. Growing up understanding multiple religions and the factors she grew up with, such as her parents being killed from various diseases, she felt knowing the reason behind our existence would help her accept her past. Before she gets anywhere close to one, she’s able to put her brain to good use when preventing her planet’s apocalypse. She may have not gotten to live to reach what she was seeking, as shown in Covenant, it doesn’t change how brave she was to keep going when she didn’t have to. Logan Marshall Green made Holloway a great equal to the protagonist because he was adventurous and felt equally eager to know the answers they way she wanted. Sadly, it was his own honesty that led to his demise. What you respected from him in his final moments was accepting his fate, knowing he couldn’t risk the others’ safety. Charlize Theron also made quite an impression as Vickers. Due to feeling neglect from her father, she chooses to be skeptic and overly strict just to prove she has power to use as she thinks she feels pleased. Had she been lenient and not let her ego get the best of her, she would’ve survived longer as well. Michael Fassbender was an instant scene stealer as David because it’s his curiosity where he embraces himself to be the most intelligent. He’s definitely programmed to be loyal, but it doesn’t stop him doing what he wants at the same time. He chose to poison Holloway, which led to Shaw’s pregnancy, because he was trying to crack the secret of immortality. And even after it didn’t work out, Covenant showed that his curiosity doesn’t stop there. Guy Pearce stands out in his own right as Weyland. Thanks to unrecognizable makeup, we see nothing but egotism in him as he only sponsored the expedition for himself more than Shaw. As much as we all want to cheat death, we shouldn’t be two faced about it and he quickly paid the price for it once his true colors were out. Idris Elba was cool as Janek because he came off as the only one level headed enough to hear Shaw out. Had he not done that, the world would definitely be doomed. Add this with Emyn Elliot & Benedict Wong making selfless figures of their own right with Chance & Ravel, it’s quite the batch of unsung heroes if you ask me. It was easy to feel bad for Ford’s death too since Kate Dickie presented her to be the most neutral one who never picked a side between anyone, but it’s really Fifield & Millburn who got the worst end of the shtick. Sean Harris showed the former to be the anti-socialite who was in it for the payday while Rafe Spall showed the latter to be way too easygoing for his own good. In fact, it was his curiosity that led to both of their deaths and had they slept anywhere but where the cylinders were, they would’ve lived another day at least. I respect a lot of things that was going on here, but there are a whole bunch of things that don’t make as much sense as they’re supposed to. Like the easiest thing should be how Holloway does not pay attention to David dipping his finger in the drink before giving it to him, which leads to his death. I know his obliviousness is what sets up his fate but if David didn’t want to take a chance, he should’ve dipped the poison way before he gave it to him, like in an area where he wouldn’t notice. And how come the medical pod doesn’t know both gender anatomies, especially that it belongs to Vickers? I mean that’s the biggest design flaw of the whole franchise when you think about it. Also, why does the engineer go after Shaw when she wasn’t the one who destroyed the ship? If he wants to destroy Earth so bad for whatever the reason, he should’ve gone to another ship as David confirmed. I even gotta admit it was a big leap that Shaw assumed the Engineers wanted to be found. It’s obvious they didn’t want to be found by humans if they intended to destroy Earth. And I don’t understand why Weyland would want to keep secret on joining the trip if he’s not going for anything selfish compared to what everyone else has in mind. That’s dumber than keeping Shaw & Holloway around if he didn’t want them to make contact. And how did the group listen to Holloway on checking out the tomb if he’s not in charge? The guy’s lucky Vickers tolerated it. And it’s strange for Shaw to not allow weapons while going outside when she’s not sure what’s out there. If Fifield & Milburn had any, they would’ve survived the night at least. Holloway is also a hypocrite to call out David for almost compromising the mission when he did the same by removing his helmet against the advisement of Shaw. Even if he was right to say what he had to say, he can’t act like he wasn’t reckless either. On top of that, he should’ve kept himself in quarantine if he wanted to save the others from a possible infection once he saw the goo on his eye. Hell, he could’ve saved himself from a flamethrower if he didn’t want to die. And no one chases Shaw after she ran away from Ford? That’s like asking for an outbreak to go on. Janek was also irresponsible for not telling the others that Fifield’s probe was picking up a life form and he should’ve told either Chance or Ravel to take watch overnight in order to look out for Fifield & Millburn and prevent them getting killed. And why does Shaw second guess someone other than the Engineer is coming for her? It’s not like Weyland survived its attack or David’s own body went rogue, so it couldn’t be anyone else in her perspective. Ignore this, then you’ll still respect the vision Scott was going for. In short, Prometheus is a fascinating tale that gives us the wonder on if the truth matters more than anything else. If you love the Alien franchise and are curious with the origins, this one should be up your alley.
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