A Personal Prometheus Review [plus some considerations]:

If I may, I'll start my personal review with an overall appreciation and personal score and later on I'll delve into some aspects of the movie and, finally, to some considerations. [b]Overall:[/b] By far, the Space Jockeys/Engineers [or “Bob”, as I enjoy calling the grumpy one that is awaken from stasis] was what I wanted to see the most. And I got quite pleased, though I wish they would get some extra screen time. But if the idea is to make a new franchise, better show only what is relevant with some aesthetics and meaning in mind than a lot of it without any aesthetic value and meaning altogether. I thought the story straight forward, without any needless major time biding. We get to see how all starts for the human kind and we are taken to the search for that beginning. Once there the amazement is replaced by concern and concern is replaced by selfish interest [Weyland] to, finally, being replaced yet again by concern [Shaw and the rest of the crew], personal enquiree [Shaw and David] and probably personal vendetta [Shaw]. It's quite that easy to follow and into the point as it should. The two unnecessary parts [and cliché moments; a la Hollywood] is the father/daughter relationship between Weyland and Vickers as well as for Shaw and her own dead father [as seen by David in Shaws dream]. But even with these two moments we get a sub-narrative involving Father - Child dualism. Also of interest is the David character: I didn't feel him to be either good or evil per se, I would instead say that he is a robot with his own questions rather than an evil doer [though he does seem to have an hidden agenda at a point]. I believe this was done in order to prevent the David character to be directly associated with Ash or Bishop in “character" and morality. Also, if we take a closer look he does have a secret agenda of infecting Holloway, yet it is contradicted by his programming of being of assistance to the surrounding humans [though I believe this is due Weyland's orders]. My personal opinion on the David 8 character is that of a "soulless boy" [as Weyland states] that does what he is told to while showing amazement at the unknown. A very good and convincing "8th model" with it's own programming mistakes [prior to the "Ash" model]. He is very convincing at showing that he tries hard to understand his human counterparts and being of service to his own "father" as much as trying to be "as human as possible", by adopting some interesting mannerisms. As to the Sound Track I have no complaints at all. There are some problems with the narrative and character placing and relevancy, but in the overall I find it satisfactory and uncompromised to a great extent. Some scenes do seem too quick and don't let us appreciate the imagery to it's full [such as the initial Engineer sequence, Prometheus flight, Prometheus interior and the LV Moon itself] and some sacrifices seem to have been obviously done in that department, but the BR/DVD will come with extra footage [if we get that lucky]. Other than that I'll dare to say that the viewers are well served [at least for aesthetic value]. [b]Personal Score:[/b] 3.5 / 5 stars [b]In favour -[/b] the Engineers; “Bob” hitting Weyland with Daivd’s head [with an evil grin, I loved that one]; the cone-head xeno bursting from Bob, the Sound Track; nods to 2001 and the overall visuals [b]Against –[/b] Fifields’ ridiculous transformation and demise [when Fifield is outside the Ship waiting to go bananas, his contortionism trick reminded me of Exorcist and Ringu, but in a rather dumbed down way]; character placing and reactions to surroundings; the somewhat rushed [yet beautiful] visual sequences; some oddities in the screenplay that make little sense [for dialogue and emotional/intellectual value]. [b]Sub-narratives and "nods":[/b] Sub-narratives: [b]1) Father-Child dualism[/b] In one hand we get to see the kind of relationship Shaw has with her father: he answers young Shaws difficult questions with honesty [about death, about non intervention, about belief and the afterlife]. On the other hand we witness and awkward moment between Weyland and Vickers, as for their relationship is rather cold and distant; and I'll dare to say mostly due to Vickers own nature as we learn that she is waiting for Wayland to die [and that is also David's point in question to Shaw when he asks her if the children don't desire their own parents to die, because he has witnessed Weyland and Vickers strange relationship while serving them]. This would also correlate with that Able vs Cain attitude of Vickers and David. Yet, Weyland has a similar attitude of belief to that of Shaws, and this is the principle fact that makes him take interest in Shaws work and funds it. This dualism is also present in Shaw and Holloway and Shaw and Vickers: Shaw serves as a human representation for faith while Vickers is the empty, materialistic representation of the modern Man. As for Holloway he is the scientific skeptic. [b]2) Creator and Created Being dualism[/b] The above mentioned sub-narrative is also in duality with the Creator and created being [Engineer and human race - human race and robots], pretty much the same way as Father - Child is [but in a 2001 fashion]: In one hand the human race is created by the Engineer and the human child is searching and trying to reach for it's father. Interesting to note that this empty relationship is in the same way Shaws father explains her the reason for him to have denied help to the men that are on their way to a funeral [something in the lines of "because they don't want my help, they have their own way of doing things, etc"] and in exécuo with the grudge filled relationship between Weyland and Vickers. On the other hand it is also present in the relationship of the robot David with the humans, specially with Weyland since Wayland himself said in the Hologram that David is "like a son" to him. And David’s contradictory behavior towards Weyland is also quite similar to that of Weyland and the Engineer: boyh yearn something from their creators: David seems to ponder on Weylands’ death for his own freedom while Weyalnd is trying to gain immortality from the Engineer. [b]Nods to 2001 and Alien[s]:[/b] There are a bunch of these throughout the entire film, whether by aesthetics and subject or dialogue lines. There is one in particular that I found amusing since [at least] one line from 2001 is repeated by David [though I'm not able to recall which one at this point, but it made me chuckle quite a bit]. There are also aesthetic concepts inside the Prometheus [or is it Vickers life-boat?] very reminiscent of 2001, and the use of classical music in that environment is pretty blatant. Classical music is also used in Alien [that acts also as a nod to 2001 there as well] in a scene with Captain Dallas. The rest is quiet Alien [pun intended]: - the Juggernaut ship [obviously] - the spacesuits - the Stasis apparatus in both ships - one of the Murals - Cuddles grown form [a huge raw form of the facehugger] - some characters such as Fifield, Milburn and Ford are reminiscent of Parker, Lambert and Brett. The rest of the mercenary crew is pretty much Aliens [b]Personal thoughts:[/b] [b]A - Humans as a mistake [?]:[/b] I came home pondering if the Human creation was a mistake/accident. And I say it so for four main reasons: [b]1 -[/b] The suicidal [?] Engineer drinks something that destroys him in a molecular level but then, somehow, the waters that he falls into re-arrange the DNA strain and eventually leading to Man. [b]2 -[/b] It is stated by David that the remaining Engineers were on their way to Earth before something happened to them, and David also explains that "in order to create one must first/sometimes destroy" [sorry, but I can't remember his exact words] which ties to [b]3 -[/b] The Juggernaut being described as a War vessel with a large amount of death bringing cargo and the LV moon as being a military outpost. [b]4 -[/b] David asks Holloway why he himself was created. The answer that Holloway gives him ["because we can"] is then counter parted by David's answer ["how disapointful it would be..."]. These four moments leads me to think that 2000 years ago those Engineers in the LV moon came to the knowledge of the Human race existing [as an accident resulting from that Engineer’s suicide] and took the decision to eliminate the Human race. Of course there is a problem with this point of view, since it seems that the Engineers were already painted in caves by primitive humans long before that 2000 years period of dormancy. Hence, there may be another piece missing from the general plot [and I disregard this "missing" as an unintentional plot-hole] that may well be addressed at the next Prometheus installment [as I believe it is tied to the Engineers way of life]. For it would make no sense at all for humans to know about "giants that created life" without those same giants telling the humans that they indeed did just that. Also, I conclude that the Engineers that created human life on Earth [per accident?] are not the same ones that are found on the LV moon [the same race, but not the same ones] [b]B - Reason[s] to kill Humans:[/b] We can come to many reasons why the Engineers would kill the human race. The most preeminent being the one that David vaguely gives us: ""in order to create one must first/sometimes destroy"; which would mean that they would kill the entire human race to make room for their own race [or something else]. Another one that I consider is the "accidental creation" needing to be whipped out. And that "needing" being two-fold: [b]1 -[/b] As a mistake, humans don't fit in a bigger agenda for the Engineers species [b]2 -[/b] The creation of the Human race being a mistake in a sense that the result should have been more close to the Engineers themselves [in appearance, height, nature, etc]. The first one I'll leave suspended since we don't have enough information about the true agenda. As to the second one, I'm really unable to defend it, since it contradicts the recorded encounters with the Engineers in the past [as shown by the cave paintings, etc]. They could have whipped us out then; and it didn't happen. There are other aspects on the main and sub subjects that come to mind, but I’ll leave them for now. [b]Final thoughts, a giggle and two personal rants:[/b] As soon as I heard about Sir Ridley's return to science fiction [and specially to re-invent the Alien take] I couldn't be more intrigued [and that made me sign in to this lovely Forum… glad that I did]. In the end I found the movie to be on an average level; not brilliant nor bad. As I stated somewhere else in this Site, I was really not expecting anything grand at all to what the "universal questioning" is concerned. The reason for this being that in terms of movie value, 2001 - a Space Odyssey did that in a rather magnificent way. And knowing that Sir Ridley is a Kubrik fan [and specially a 2001 fan] I'm always expecting some fan references to that particular movie by Sir Ridley himself [as it turned out to be]. However, visually, it is delightful. The landscapes are gorgeous and Giger's work has always been better filmed by Sir Ridley than any other movie maker that I know of. As much as I chuckled with the 2001 line being reenacted, I giggled with David's severed head being able to turn to watch the Engineer strapping on. Also, I consider Sir Ridley’s comment of Prometheus being “2001 on steroids” an exaggerated one. Unless he was talking about “Bob’s” great-great-great grandfather bodybuilding attributes, I missed the steroids altogether; though 2001 is there in many ways. My first personal rant [if such] goes to the way the characters interact with the surroundings. One that strikes me as odd is when David opens the Temple door where the SJ is beheaded and as soon that huge Head shows, the characters seem to make nothing of it 'till some moments later, and by David. The placement of the beheaded SJ body, the huge Head appearing and the SJs helmet/head was too unemotional for a group of scientist [human scientists, that is] and it felt rather odd letting David make a first remark towards it. What would surprise a human most? Seeing an image of a dying SJ and finding his elephantine head [an expected waiting I might add], or this huge human-like Head on a far away alien moon? My second personal rant goes to the quickness of the aesthetic sceneries. I wish the dying Engineer overture lasted a tad longer [beautiful scene that one was] and the LV moon sceneries lasted longer as well. Those were beautiful shots that felt quite short to my eyes. But, again, we may get lucky with the BR/DVD, as it is usual for the theatrical releases and TV/DVD releases to be somewhat different [I take Star Trek – the motion picture as a very good example: there were, in all, 3 different releases of the movie, the DVD release being the one with more footage than the theatrical or TV releases]. [b]Synthesis:[/b] To the question “do you believe Prometheus is bound to become a classic” I would have to say YES and NO. It really depends on many things. As for a near future, the most important aspects being if Prometheus will have it’s own franchising, if Sir Ridley Scott will direct it, if the next installment(s) will stand on it’s/their own as Prometheus does; and who’s the next Screenwriter [and I’m granting Lindelof will be left out of it]. But for the immediate time, I would [sadly] say NO. The main reason: all the “space-horror” vibe [and side of it] one gets from the trailers is far from being achieved in the actual movie. Plus, the bigger-than-life “thought provoking” [a la 2001] aspect of it would benefit from meaningful dialogues between the characters, not only from the reaction of the counterparts. My personal feeling is that there was a lot that could have been stretched out and a lot that really has that enormous potential to mind boggle [if that is the take on the franchise]. But, as it is, it underachieves it by rushing grand things and enticing to [maybe] less important ones. I wouldn’t say that the movie fails either. It’s a good movie, by all means. But just not that “grandiose” as the trailers and marketing throws at us [but that much I was already expecting]. Kudos, and reply if you feel like to. [b]p.s.:[/b] Sorry for the lengthy review and post-considerations. [b]p.p.s :[/b] I did enjoy the movie, if there are any doubts still remaining about that. [b]p.p.p.s:[/b] Spartacus, I know you love the movie and I’m very happy that you do [just in case you feel like hitting the life out of me with Cuddles, the Hamerpede, Fifield and that cone-head xeno at the end, or all at once].