Prometheus in a nutshell!!!
davuda
MemberOvomorphOctober 23, 20121880 Views5 RepliesHello all,
First and foremost I want to mention something about Ridley Scott's work "Kingdom of Heaven" and the parallels it has with this film. I will [b]bold[/b] and CAPITALIZE (just in case the bold doesn't work) the words that show these parallels, so keep them in mind as you read this thread. In KoH, the christian crusaders fought to defend the city of Jerusalem from being captured by Saladin and his muslim army. Prevalent throughout the film, was the theme or idea of a kingdom of [b]CONSCIENCE[/b]. In such a kingdom, conscience refers to [b]CONSEQUENCE[/b] and the effects haste and irrational decisions have on human life. At the end of the movie, the defenders of Jerusalem decided to threaten the invaders by [b]DESTROYING[/b] every temple and symbolic monument in the city, rendering it a capture of nothing but a heap of rubble.
After considering the offer and the logic behind this move. Saladin decided to guarantee safe passage for every inhabitant, regardless of [b]CREED[/b]. Indeed, this was the kingdom of conscience, because it valued human life over [b] GRUDGES[/b], [b]GROUP THINK[/b], and religious [b]EGO[/b].
Mutation is one the most emphatic, if not the most emphatic theme in Prometheus. You can also extend this to the entire Alien franchise, but it is more pronounced and dug into in Prometheus.
Prometheus in a nutshell:
I will keep this very simple and unambiguous. The race of the Engineers mastered the art of seeding worlds with life using an incredibly complex and highly functional mutagen. There are three reasons why they would have done this a) they are dying and trying to save their race from extinction by creating new gene pools b) they have reached a level of technology that allowed them the power of seeding planets with life, using sacrifice c) a combination of a) and b). Sacrifice is a very important word here because it conveys the noble understanding of how life works in this universe, birth death rebirth, and shows the humility of the elder engineers as creators. To sacrifice oneself in order to seed a planet would have to be considered the most honourable thing to do in one's life. Not only do you lose your own life, but every hominid that evolved on the planet is your child, your descendant. It could be said that every planet is named after the engineer that seeded it, if in fact they've seeded other planets. This also leads me to believe that the Engineer society is a very individualistic society..this is only a hypothesis.
Anyways, this way of life for them developed into a dogma that mutated into the symbol of prometheus stealing the fire from the gods. An egotistical group of engineers started thinking that sacrifice was the wrong way to go about doing things. This ego is the only reason I can think of why the last engineer decided to kill the humans and continue his mission to earth. Its either the ego or the search for immortality using a different mechanism. So this offshoot group of engineers stole the black goo and decided they should be worshiped by the humans of earth lest they be destroyed by the weapons produced on LV223...hence the ancient starmaps.
OK I'm going to leave it here because I have to go to the gym and would rather see someone else finish it for me or critique it.
Have fun folks :)
