Prometheus Movie Review

By Brett Stewart

Prometheus is the highly anticipated prequel to Ridley Scott’s “Alien” franchise. After over three decades, does the series still deliver?

So everyone gets stuck on a spaceship, the lights go out, evil little critters kill each crew member gruesomely, and their robot friend betrays them. That’s the 1979 film, Alien. Wait… it’s also Prometheus. The film is a skeleton of previous films in the series set in a different environment with minor plot twists in attempt to keep the story fresh. It’s quickly apparent that this is the film Scott wanted to make thirty-three years ago, had he had the technology at the time.

What Prometheus has going for it is the minor plot twists that it did make. The film introduces a new alien species in the human’s attempt to discover their divine creator. Instead they find an abandoned test ground planet where this race was testing their ultimate WMD before they had to desert all of the facilities.

Being the stereotypical, cocky, and naïve group of weary travelers that this type of film usually employs, the humans naturally stumble into the middle of this factory, turn on the weapons, (in a sense) and chaos ensues as the aliens begin to pick them off one by one. Just as you think it’s about to be over, it’s not. You’ll find yourself half getting up out of your seat multiple times when you think the credit roll is seconds away.

While Prometheus a newly recycled Alien, it does have its moments. The entire movie is visually spectacular, and seeing it in 3D or IMAX is a fantastic investment. The film does a remarkably well job of taking ideas and creatures that made the series known for being frightening and disturbing, and bringing them to an entirely new level. From landing on the foreign world to the many attempts in trying to leave, the film does do a nice job of keeping you entertained despite the run time being a bit too lengthy for the film.

The Alien franchise’s time is over. The low level of hype for Prometheus proved that. While the film will tie up some loose ends, (even though you probably never questioned them in the first place) the Alien plot itself doesn’t meet modern standards. The original film is unique in the fact that it will remain ever engraved in the history of science fiction film making; Prometheus doesn’t have that luxury. Go see it. It’ll amuse you and it’s something to do on a hot day. Just don’t expect the return of the series to bring anything new to the table.