The return of a king can be a powerful moment. Sometimes the people we entrust with our beloved ideas, properties and occasionally children make such a mess of things, that we start to long for the good old days and a return to order, and who better to accomplish that than the king who ruled when times were good? Fans of the Alien franchise had been looking forward to Prometheus for just that reason. Every Alien movie after the first sequel has been disappointing on a downward spiral. So fans were understandably excited when Ridley Scott announced he was returning to the franchise he started way back in 1979. Hail to the king!
Why we expected him to return wreathed in glory, smiling confidently, in golden, shiny armor can probably be attributed to the eternal baseless optimism of industry producers and the viewing public, bolstered by an amazing trailer. So after the disastrous “return to genre” performances of recent memory (Spielberg, Lucas, Romero, Carpenter, Kubrick, etc.), watching yet another king ride back into view filthy, naked, and ranting incoherently about gods, monsters and aliens, should not have been a surprise, but still . . . I was surprised at how big the gap in quality between Alien and Prometheus was. How big a gap you say? I am glad you asked.
It’s hard to know where to start, so let’s start with the shortest and easiest question to answer: what did the movie do right? The cinematography is stunning, as you might expect from Ridley Scott. The technology effects are top-notch, and the imagined world impressive. The acting will not shake up the Oscars this year, but this was almost entirely due to circumstances beyond the control of the actors. Fassbender, Theron, Rapace and Elba all did great with what they were given. Fassbender's acting in particular was fun, and while his character generated a lot of interesting questions, they get lost in the general mish-mash of poor plot and character decisions involving the rest of the cast. I didn't notice the music at the time, but several friends remarked that it didn't seem to suit the movie. On the premise that it at least did not get in my way, I'm going to say the soundtrack was acceptable. Sadly, there is very little beyond that that I don’t find increasingly objectionable the more I think about it.
Prometheus, for all the hype, investment money and big names associated with the project, goes wrong early on a few fundamental levels related to telling any kind of story: characters, plot, theme. It is easiest to just work through them one by one.
