Prometheus

I am sure at the moment there’s not a single movie-goer who has never heard about this film or hasn’t seen a single commercial about it. Masterfully done, even the 15 second TV-spots do manage to make every viewer cringe. And yet this enormous amount of pre-release data won’t be able to show what exactly is awaiting you.

I seriously contemplated writing this review, as going into details of the plot means spoiling the experience once and for all. And for example, if some movies might be given a proper synopsis up to a special point, this one has a never-expected surprise right in the beginning, so yes, I am just going to mention what is already known from the trailer.

A group of archaeologists, led by Elisabeth (Noomi Rapace), discover a hidden cave with the drawings similar to other archaeological sites, drawn by civilizations not related to each other from different parts of the world. All this paintings seem to have one single impression of combinations of stars. There’s only one system of the stars matching same configuration and 2 years later a scientific expedition is sent by Weyland Corporation to so-called planet LV-223, which is the only habitable planet in the set system of stars on our sky. This ship is controlled by Weyland superviser Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) – a no-nonsense manager, with help of android David model 8 (Michael Fassbender). While scientists believe to find some information about creation of life on our planet, there someone else on the ship hoping to find something beyond that.

I am not sure how many years Ridley Scott struggled the temptation of returning to the topic which set up his directing career and what finally made him change his mind about it. He certainly did so and I really appreciate that. I think he was trying to distance himself from the main topic of the franchise, yet still be somewhere in that neighborhood, and I believe the script manages this brilliantly. If you have seen any of the “Alien” films, you will be having some deja vus throughout. Not much tho, I warn you. Do not deceive yourself with idea of seeing an actual prequel, “Prometheus” is not one and is managing to stay a stand-alone entity.

Acting is top-notch. Noomi Rapace is very convincing. She is emotional, she is exciting, she is strong, she is smart, and she is resourceful. Michael Fassbender as android David has an interesting approach of portraying a robot forced to live with humans. And although his David is trying to stay as unemotional as a robot can and should be, we can still see all the thoughts passing through his electronic brain. Really remarkable performance. Charlize Theron is passing into a different realm of acting, where there is not a single fake acting that can be noticed. I am glad to see her do that, not a lot of actors, especially actresses manage to pass into this zone. Can’t mention Guy Pearce, another actor I’ve been keeping an eye on since “Memento”. Its good to see him back into high-profile movies.

Overall the film is a marvelous experience. I was really lucky to catch it in mind-blowing IMAX 3D and it was intense. The film was filmed in 3D, unlike say “Avengers” (which was filmed in 2D and then converted to 3D digitally), and 3D is not there to have something thrown into the face of viewers. Its there to create depth of field and space awareness. It does it beautifully. Some scenes are incredible amazing. If you can watch it in 3D, do so. I don’t see how it can be fully appreciated on regular screens.

There are some points of the script that didn’t play well with me. Its not flawless, I have left the cinema with a lot of unanswered questions, I assume that was the intention. It might seem disappointing to some, especially if one got a different hype from the trailer. Its not as much horror as it is sci-fi. And it has awful a lot of crew members for your regular sci-fi/horror type film to dispose of.

8/10