Prometheus: movie review
Most of the best effects in 'Prometheus' are lifted from director Ridley Scott's 'Alien,' and the film's meditations on life and the universe don't amount to much.
'Prometheus' actress Noomi Rapace (center) is game, but isn't given much to do.
Kerry Brown/20th Century Fox/AP
Ridley Scott has made two iconic sci-fi films, 鈥�Alien鈥� (1979) and 鈥�Blade Runner鈥� (1982). Trying for a hat trick with 鈥�Prometheus,鈥� he comes up short.
I鈥檒l say this much for it 鈥� it鈥檚 not boring. How could it be when it features sequences like the one in which the heroine gives herself a self- administered Caesarean and out pops an alien?
That heroine, circa 2093, is scientist Elizabeth Shaw, played by Noomi Rapace in a frisky manner about as far removed as can be from her somnolent girl with a dragon tattoo.
Elizabeth and her scientist boyfriend, Charlie (Logan Marshall-Green), have hit on the theory that aliens created earthlings. Heading up the spaceship Prometheus, she hopes to make contact with the creators on the desolate planet she believes beckons us. Of course, once the spaceship has landed, the alien malevolence kicks in and you can forget about all that we-come-in-peace stuff.
Scott makes functional use of 3-D here, and most of his best shock effects, like that alien birth, are lifted from 鈥淎lien.鈥� (The film at one time was engineered as a prequel to 鈥淎lien,鈥� but that notion seems to have evaporated.) Charlize Theron, in the same witchy mode as in 鈥�Snow White and the Huntsman,鈥� plays the on-board corporate honcho. The film鈥檚 most creepily amusing character is Michael Fassbender鈥檚 David, the spaceship鈥檚 supersmart android who patterns his movements and diction on Peter O鈥橳oole in 鈥�Lawrence of Arabia,鈥� his favorite film.
Rapace is game as Elizabeth but doesn鈥檛 get much to do except look alternately blissed-out, terrified, and poleaxed. The film鈥檚 meditations on The Meaning of It All don鈥檛 amount to much. Elizabeth conspicuously wears a cross around her neck and declares that she is 鈥渨illing to discount three centuries of Darwinism.鈥� As for the 鈥渃reators,鈥� and why they want to obliterate their creation, if you stick out the end credits you鈥檒l notice a sequel is in the offing. As if you hadn鈥檛 already guessed that. Grade: B- (Rated R for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language.)