Prometheus 3D

Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s sort of prequel to Alien (1979), has some huge ideas, which it then ignores for some other huge ideas, and then fails to address any of them.

OK, look, no-one’s expecting the meaning of life to come from a Hollywood movie, but when the film purports to be an inquiry into the very nature of humanity itself, not even trying to answer the premise is pretty rubbish.

Throughout, the film is gorgeously shot, the characters distinct and all memorable in their own way. Scott remains a master at this, and in my opinion his only flaw these days is an inability to turn down a crappy script.

Michael Fassbender steals the show with his performance as the android David. The immense restraint and flickers of pain he shows every time the human characters denigrate his lack of emotion and his lack of soul felt like the lead up to what could have been a wonderful thematic moment exploring what it really means to be human, but this never arrives. Indeed, as the film ends and Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw converses with David’s severed head (he’s an android, apparently the rest of the body was just for show), she once again shoots down his attempts at engaging philosophically with “Well, maybe that’s because you’re just a robot.”

The protagonist has learnt nothing from the whole endeavour. Fantastic.

Many tropes of horror flicks gone by are here, as are numerous references to the predecessors in the franchise, these aren’t in itself terribly bad things, much of the plot would be severely curtailed if everyone acted sensibly, and there are refreshing moments of pragmatism demonstrated from time to time. However, what is clear to me are strong signs that the writers were making much of it up as they went along, writing themselves into corners on numerous occasions and frequently failing to engage interesting topics for any length of time before veering off into the next neato concept. Oh, they wrote Lost? Explains everything, really.

Just in case you might still want to go see the film, I won’t spoil the very ending, but the moment that sums up the whole film for me is the very last scene. Something appropriately dramatic happens, the credits roll. Everyone in my cinema gave out the same nervous bark of laughter, as if to say, “Oh, you almost had me there, you can play the real ending now!”

There wasn’t one.