Review of Prometheus (2012) by Fairbrother — 15 May 2017

"Prometheus" has a lot going for it. An interesting cast with real presence. A director with five decades of cutting-edge film-making under his belt. A premise that pursues classic philosophical questions about the origin of life within a straight-up genre movie framework.

And some of the finest, moodiest cinematography any studio picture has managed to deliver yet in the 3D format - make no mistake, the picture looks a (hundred) million bucks. But for all that it feels fundamentally hollow and redundant.

The cast are largely squandered on roles that either fail to convince or outright irritate. Scott's grasp of technical pizzazz seems, in this picture at least, to exceed his ability for solid dramatization.

There's always plenty of stuff going on but little of it is ever truly compelling or stimulating. And, MILD SPOILER, the film's one effective horror scene even introduces a convenient narrative cheat which would essentially neuter the entire "Alien" mythology which "Prometheus" supposedly backs into.

Prequelizing established classics has many pitfalls and "Prometheus" falls headfirst into the biggest one: it wants to be "Alien" and not be "Alien" at the same time. This built-in identity crises scuttles all the effort involved from the off.