Director Report Card: Ridley Scott (2012)

20. Prometheus

About once a year, a movie comes along that the internet looses its shit about. Sometimes, the web citizens can’t stop talking about a movie because they love everything about it. More usually, a film enrages the internet, causing them to bitch and moan and debate every last aspect of it. “Prometheus” easily fell into the latter category. The movie was initially greeted by a well-spring of critical praise. Then people started to complain that it didn’t make any sense. I think, in some corners of the web, they are still talking about this. Separated nine years from the hype, “Prometheus” still remains an interesting but hugely flawed film.

In the near future of 2091, a team of archaeologists and scientists convinces the Weyland-Yutani company to fund a journey to a distant star system. That same star system is shown in countless ancient texts, causing Dr. Shaw and her husband to believe the secret of human life started somewhere out there. Landing the ship Prometheus on that distant planet, the scientists discover plenty of startling things there. Their eyes are opened to secrets, wonders, and horrors. However, in-fighting and conspiracies complicate the plan of humans and aliens.

That frenzied negative reception that greeted “Prometheus” from fanboys was mostly the fault of soured hype. “Prometheus” was first conceived as Ridley Scott's return to the “Alien” universe he created. The earliest script was written by Jon Spaihts and was a direct prequel to “Alien,” exploring the origin of the xenomorphs and their connection to the space jockeys, questions fans have asked for years. When Scott came on to direct “Prometheus,” he wanted it to stand alone as a movie. Much contested writer Damon Lindelof greatly rewrote Spaihts’ script. Lindelof is notorious for introducing mysterious shit that is never explained or explained poorly. It’s no coincidence that “Prometheus” features lots of that stuff. But we can’t blame the movie’s many baffling decisions solely on Lindelof. Ridley Scott approved all of them. This may be blind fanboy enthusiasm talking but, by all accounts, Spaihts wrote the movie that “Alien” fans wanted to see. And that was a movie Ridley Scott didn’t want to make.

However, “Prometheus” can’t be faulted for a lack of ambitions. “Alien” was a movie with a bold vision. It was also, basically, a slasher movie set on a space ship, a beautifully-executed work of pulp. “Prometheus,” meanwhile, tackles huge themes. This is a story about the origin of life in the universe. It weaves faith, the question of God, mortality, the afterlife, and humanity’s drive to live and answer questions into this framework. Most science fiction movies produced today are simply big-budget action movies. “Prometheus” belongs to an older tradition of cerebral sci-fi. Despite this, the movie still has to fulfill the pulpy demands of the “Alien” series. The result is not wholly satisfying in either direction.

It's not hard to see why Ridley Scott was interested in these ideas. "Prometheus" continues many of the director's pet themes. The idea of confronting fathers is threaded all throughout the story, largely thanks to David and Vickers connection to the Weyland-Yutani corporation. This links to a wider premise of connecting with our creators, the almost-literal gods that made the human race. Inevitably, the alien Engineers are as disappointed with their creations as the cruel fathers of the film are with their offspring. With "Prometheus," Ridley Scott finally finds a way to fuse his fascination with questions of religion with his repeated drive to explore daddy issues.

When everyone started bitching about “Prometheus’” lack of internal logic, I supported the theory that the movie is supposed to be mysterious. “Alien” was a film that raised a lot of questions it didn’t answer either. In retrospect, I now realize this was wrong. “Prometheus” throws in a lot of stuff that simply doesn’t make any sense. These moments are here just to raise questions, questions Scott and Lindleof have no intention of answering. I won’t regurgitate many of these grievances. The holograms on the Engineer ship do not serve a practical purpose. The properties of the black slime seem to vary from scene to scene. Elements are introduced willy-nilly and very little of it adds up. It is not satisfying. All these moments really do is make it clear that the people making the movie had no interest in telling a clear story.

Sadly, the movie’s problems don’t end with a shaky story. “Prometheus” also features characters doing dumb things for vaguely defined reasons. Rafe Spall plays Millburn, a biologist. While locked in the alien ship overnight, he discovers a worm-like creature identified as a “hammer-pede.” Instead of studying an obviously dangerous creature from a safe distance, he attempts to touch it. This goes horribly wrong and gets him gruesomely killed. David, the android played by Michael Fassbender, behaves inscrutably. He poisons a character with the black slime, producing one of its many effects. Why? We don’t know! His motivations and alliances also shift repeatedly throughout the film, without a clear reason. The insertion of Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland is a random-ass last minute twist, which only further muddles the movie’s plot.

Despite its boundless narrative problems, “Prometheus” still has a great many things in its favor. The movie’s parts are greater than the whole. There are quite a few impressive sequences. The opening scene, which features a Engineer on a seemingly prehistoric Earth poisoning himself and creating life, establishes the movie’s epic scope. The scenes of the scientist exploring the underground tunnels are gorgeous and impressive. The set work is typically excellent. The use of holograms are visually impressive, as huge schematics of the universe swirl around the cast. In these moments, “Prometheus” creates the same stark wonder as the original “Alien.” The movie’s scope is huge and its many special effects scene are fantastic. 

Refreshingly, “Prometheus” does not back down from the series’ proud tradition of body horror either. The movie seems especially concerned with the various horrible things that can happen to the human body. A head explodes into black mist inside a chamber. (We don’t know why but there’s lots of things we don’t know about.) The face of a space suit is melted with acidic blood, forming around the man’s body. A worm wiggles out of a person’s eye and his body seemingly decomposes while he is still alive. That same black slime turns another man into a super-strong zombie that tosses people around with ease. That last scene doesn’t work the best but “Prometheus’” commitment to the horror side of “sci-fi/horror” equation is impressive. The stand-out scene of the entire film involves Shaw cutting a squirming alien cuttlefish out of herself, a terrifying moment of grotesque fear further enhanced by the cramped settings. During these scenes, “Prometheus” is damn near a masterpiece.

The movie also creates a worthy successor to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. Noomi Rapace plays Dr. Shaw. Rapace came to fame for playing Lisbeth Salander in the original film version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Lisbeth was characterized by an indomitable toughness and an unstoppable will to survive. Shaw is far less angry then Salander, more gripped by questions of faith and issues of love. The two character do share a refusal to die. Shaw is incredibly tough. Loosing her husband and having a monster fetus cut out of her belly doesn’t slow her down much. She seems to represent the human drive to explore and seek out answers. She never stops running forward and never stops looking ahead. Rapace is fantastic in the part. Her strengths as an actress is one aspect of “Prometheus” that has remained great.

The movie also features a strong performance from Michael Fassbender. “Prometheus” was another flower in Fassbender’s cap in 2012, another step on his path to becoming a hugely popular leading man. David, as a character, is written sloppily. He is intentionally an enigma, someone the audience never truly understands. None of this is Fassbender’s fault. He remains compelling throughout. David fashions himself after Peter O’Toole in “Lawrence of Arabia.” In the same way O’Tool always seemed slightly above other humans, Fassbender’s David is inhuman and above-it-all. Yet he, oddly, also seems to strive towards humanity. Fassbender’s performance is full of fascinating nuances and interesting choices.

The movie’s cast is packed with notable names. Charlize Theron is nicely cast as the icy Vickers. Theron’s stunning beauty also makes her slightly inhuman. Vickers is resilient, tough, but compromised by the plans of those around her. Theron is well utilized in the part, even if the character does have a stupid death. Idris Elba employs his considerable charm as Janek, the ship captain who is mostly a good guy caught in a crazy situation. Guy Pearce’s casting as a hundred-year-old man has been criticized. The old age make-up is one of the few shaky special effects in the film. Yet Pearce is also a great actor and brings a certain bitter craft to the part of Weyland. I also Sean Harris as Fifield, the punk rock geologist who turns into a zombie. 

“Prometheus” throws a lot of balls into the air, some of which it never intends to catch. With so much plot going on, the movie’s last act becomes a mish-mash of different storylines clumsily colliding. Weyland pursues the secret of immortality, in an obviously poorly thought-out fashion. The Engineers, previously known as the space jockeys, reemerge. The one survivor becomes an unlikely monster, killing people and chasing the heroine. A plot to destroy the Earth is hastily inserted. It is also hastily settled, as characters sacrifice themselves to save the day. More cast members die. Previously abandoned plot threads are reintroduced suddenly, awkwardly. It’s not difficult to keep track off but it’s a good example of how half-baked “Prometheus” is. Considering it’s a hugely elaborate movie, there’s no excuse for its story being this rushed and uneven.

Part of the “Prometheus” backlash can obviously be traced to the movie’s disinterest in being a prequel to “Alien” it obviously is. The Engineer’s ship look like the derelict ship. Their flight suits are the same suits worn by the space jockey. A cockpit and a huge cannon attachment puts in a prominent appearance. Yet the movie is an aggressive tease. It’s not set on LV-426. This is not the same planet from “Alien,” even though it appears to be. The Engineer ship that crashes is not the same ship discovered in “Alien.” Why are you jerking us around, Ridley? A prototype of the xenomorph puts in an appearance before the credits. How exactly did such a convoluted series of events lead to the creation of this creature? How does this creature lead to the race of aliens we all know and love? How does any of this shit connect? Alas, the movie does not provide answer. 

So “Prometheus” is a frustrating stew. On the column of pros is a wonderful cast, a brilliant visual design, a lovely score, and a number of truly fantastic scenes. In the cons column is a fuzzy script, one that does not commit to what type of movie “Prometheus” wants to be. I still enjoy the film. Sometimes, it's best to be swept up in the visual splendor and the moments. Is it annoying as hell sometimes? Certainly, definitely, obviously. I can’t quite forgive it for those sins either. Still, the movie should be admired for what it gets right and for its boundless ambitions. [Grade: B]