Prometheus update

 

 

Prometheus 2012

Updated 26 February 2021

• Director: Ridley Scott
• Films seen directed by Scott: The Martian, Robin Hood, A Good Year, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, G.I. Jane, Thelma and Louise, Alien, Blade Runner
• Based on a novel: no
• Cast: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Rafe Spall, Logan Marshall-Green, Kate Dickie
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Noomi Rapace – Stockholm, Unlocked, Rupture, Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows, Svinalängorna, Män som hatar kvinnor, Flickan som lekte med elden, Luftslottet som sprängdes (the last three are based on Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy, Swedish version) and a lot of Swedish TV programs
• Michael Fassbender – X-Men Apocalypse, Macbeth, X-Men Days of Future Past, X-Men First Class, Inglourious Basterds, Jane Eyre, Fish Tank, Hunger
• Charlize Theron – Snow White Huntsman’s War, Mad Max Fury Road, The Road, Battle in Seattle, North Country, Monster, Sweet November, The Cider House Rules, The Devil’s Advocate, The Astronaut’s Wife
• Idris Elba – The Mountain Between Us, Molly’s Game, The Dark Tower, 100 Streets, Thor, The No. One Ladies’ Detective Agency, Twenty-Eight Weeks Later, The Wire, Crocodile Shoes, Absolutely Fabulous
• Rafe Spall – x+y, The World’s End, I Give It a Year, The Life of Pi, Hot Fuzz, A Good Year, Shaun of the Dead
• Logan Marshall-Green – Across the Universe
• Kate Dickie – Star Wars the Last Jedi, London Spy, Filth, The Pillars of the Earth, Red Road
• Why? Ridley Scott, Noomi Rapace, the Alien films
• Seen:  July 13, 2014

 A lot was said about this film when it came out; opinions were mixed.  What concerns me is the religious tone some have claimed for it.  Hm. We’ll see, won’t we?

2089. The Isle of Skye. Cave paintings of figures pointing to the stars. “They want us to find them.”

2093. The spaceship Prometheus. The myth of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans which made Zeus angry so he chained Prometheus to a rock and his liver was eaten by an eagle forever. I wouldn’t name my spaceship after Prometheus, would you?  But it has to do with gods and humans wanting to be gods etc, and the film is about Engineers, who made us, and humans who want to find out who they were and why they made us and why they abandoned us.

Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Rapace) is, for sentimental childhood reasons, a Christian believer. She wears a cross and chooses to believe. She is one of the driving forces in the search on this far-off planet for the Engineers. She and her companions find an enormous temple, thousands of dead beings with the same DNA as we have, a monster and a living Engineer who tries to take off to complete his destruction mission to Earth.

It doesn’t exactly go as planned for anybody and in the end SPOILER ALERT Dr. Shaw is the lone survivor with the talking head, ripped off from the amiable but sneaky robot David (Fassbender). When he says he can take her back to Earth she doesn’t want to go. She wants to go find the Engineers and ask them why.  Being a robot, he doesn’t think why matters. Being human, she does.

It’s exciting, it’s visual, it’s as yucky as the Alien films, and Noomi Rapace is every bit as good as Sigourney Weaver. And I’m not just saying that because she’s Swedish. The whole cast is good.

So is it religious? It asks the where and why and who questions and that’s always interesting. The cross is silly if only because the whole concept of the film makes the Christian myth seem quite insignificant and Shaw’s choosing to cling to it is silly.  But we humans have long been and still are silly, even when we’re probing the deepest questions. Maybe especially then.

The film is worth seeing. It’s a worthy prequel to the Alien films.  And yes, another Prometheus film is on its way. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender will be back. I’m looking forward to it. 

3 ½ * of 5

 Update 26 February 2021 – this review is actually pretty good, don’t you think? But the rating is too low. It’s a strong

4* of 5.