(Out of four)
Available in 3D and enjoying early box office success, the movie Prometheus, directed by Sir Ridley Scott, immediately assumes its place among the ranks of top science fiction movies. Scott, of course, is a director of great renown, having helmed influential films like Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. His most recent projects have been Kingdom of Heaven, A Good Year, American Gangster, Body of Lies and a 2010 Robin Hood, as well as producing, with his younger brother Tony, the television shows Numb3rs and The Good Wife. While there is good work in that grouping, Prometheus returns Scott to the level that got him knighted and may pressure the Academy Awards to nominate him a fourth time for directorial honors.
In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan credited with creating man from clay and subsequently stealing fire for man’s use, causing Zeus to sentence him to eternal torment. In literature, Prometheus has taken on connotations of human striving for scientific knowledge, and often, of human overreaching with catastrophic consequences. In the Greek myth, Prometheus was bound to a rock, his liver devoured daily by an eagle (a symbol of Zeus), only to have it grow back so his torment could resume the following day. Arguably, even worse things happen to some characters in the film Prometheus.
Prometheus opens in the distant past with a spaceship hovering over a powerful waterfall (Dettifoss Falls in Iceland) while a large humanoid alien stands on its brink in the apparent act of seeding some kind of life. It picks up in 2089 near the Old Man of Storr rock formation on the morosely beautiful Scottish Isle of Skye, where scientists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) unearth 35,000-year-old cave paintings that add to a growing body of evidence of early alien visitations. In each such excavation, a figure points to a distant constellation. The researchers interpret the star map as an invitation to come meet their makers (whom in scientific parlance they refer to as “engineers”).
The third scene, set on December 21, 2093, introduces a spaceship traveling at light speed in which humanoid robot David (Michael Fassbender) is awakening its crew after more than two years in stasis as they settle into orbit around the moon LV-223 of a ringed planet, the only heavenly body in the galactic system indicated by the star map that might be capable of sustaining life. In charge of the Prometheus is ex-military Captain Janek (Idris Elba), but the expedition’s leader is played by the very prim and cool-as-Nordic-ice Charlize Theron. “Good morning,” Theron says. “I am Meredith Vickers, and it is my job to make sure you do yours.”
Scott has a penchant for depicting strong women (think Daryl Hannah in Blade Runner or Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies). Both Shaw and Vickers are empowered female characters (great role modeling for young ladies) and both exert themselves notably in nothing more than a bra and panties (something for the young men as well?), although not in the same scene. Despite Vickers’ mantle of authority, our heroine isn’t played by Theron but rather Rapace, and in one scene her character may set a new sci-fi benchmark for resourcefulness and guts under duress.
Strength of his female characters notwithstanding, fleshing out his characters does not seem to be one of Scott’s strong suits. Just as in professional sports some coaches are not considered players’ coaches, in cinema some directors are not considered actor’s directors. Scott definitely isn’t, and although he has been credited with making strides in accepting suggestions about the development of characters from the actors playing them, character development remains the weakest point in this very strong movie. While (the nevertheless religious) scientist Shaw is imbued with the overwhelming if naïve drive to “make contact” after losing her mother early in life and speculating with her father on the nature of heaven (revealed in a dream), most other characters’ motivations remain unilluminated (and not merely the ones whose motives must remain unclear to leave room for significant plot surprises).
“This is a corporate run. They’re not telling us (anything),” a crewmember complains, but in a meeting initiated by Vickers soon after, the crew starts to get some answers. A hologram appearance by Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), founder of Weyland Corporation and funder of the trillion dollar private expedition, greets the crew and informs them that, if they have reached their destination, then he must be long dead. “Prometheus was cast from Olympus,” the shimmering Weyland says grandly, “and the time has finally come for his return.” Weyland introduces David as the closest thing he has to a son, but regrets the robot’s lack of a soul. At least three of the characters have issues with their fathers, a recurrent theme in Scott’s movies. But then, this is after all a movie about origins.
Son or not, Fassbender’s David is delightfully ambiguous, reminding one somewhat of Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nor is that the only movie to which homage, direct or indirect, is paid. Obliquely invoking the fire-bringing of the Prometheus myth, the Lawrence of Arabia scene is shown in which T.E. Lawrence (O’Toole) impresses his colleagues by pinching out a lit match between his fingers. After one cohort burns himself trying to duplicate the feat and demands to know what the trick was, O’Toole’s character says famously, “The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.” That scene made such an impression on me in my youth that, to this day, I insist on extinguishing every candle around me in like manner. (Never mind my knife-throwing phase after seeing The Magnificent Seven.)
As their spacecraft leaves orbit and passes low over the moonscape, they discover a long straight valley that divides the mountains and looks like a natural runway. “God does not build in straight lines,” one of the characters intones (actually, God, or nature, does at times). The spaceship touches down, and Holloway is in such a hurry to get out onto the moon’s surface that he overrides objections about limited daylight, saying “It’s Christmas, Captain, and I want to open my presents!”
Let the fun begin!
All is not as it seems, of course, and the implied question “Are you ready to meet your maker?’ resonates with double entendre. The movie has both a fantasy lightness and a gritty realism at different times, depending mostly on whether the scenes are hopeful or forbidding. Is Prometheus derivative at times? Yes, of course—at this point, virtually every movie is. But it raises interesting questions and it’s well plotted, tying up its threads neatly while laying the groundwork for a possible sequel (as well as foreshadowing the original Alien movie).
The cinematography is gorgeous, the set work is impressive, the imagined technology is convincing, and the special effects are suitably mind-blowing. And where the payoff for 3D technology has generally been meager except in animated releases and the landmark film Avatar, it’s used to full advantage in Prometheus. I would recommend seeing Prometheus in 3D if possible, but I also viewed the film a second time in 2D and it didn’t lose its luster.
The legend of Prometheus encompasses a number of themes, including men who have but feet of clay, the promise of fire, the desire to aspire to the heavens, and the agony of excessive hubris. The movie Prometheus delivers on all of these themes—and more! For this reason, I am awarding it four stars (out of four).