Reviews Film / Prometheus

This is a Film with Problems

Starting this review, I feel that I should first address a charge made by defenders of the film at its detractors. This troper does not dislike the film because it is not Alien. This troper was not under any illusions that the film would be precisely the same as a movie made decades earlier with a different premise. The people who seemed to be under that illusion were in fact the people who made Prometheus in the first place. At multiple points it seems that the writers were simply trying to recreate problems and connections between characters from Alien, but they didn't understand why those problems and connections worked in Alien but would make little sense in Prometheus. The characters in the latter do not have any of the background or environment that the characters in the former do, so it is baffling as to why the writers would think that events would be at all the same.

Moving on from there we have the glaring issue of common sense. That is to say, the horrible lack of it in Prometheus. One thing that makes Alien (and most stories in general) good was that in general everyone behaved as you would think a reasonable human would, and when they do not there is an understandable reason for it. In this film we have the misfortune to watch supposedly intelligent people behave like idiots because the plot needs them to.

Finally the movie has no overarching theme. A theme of relations between parents and children is brought up, but never addressed. The conflict between faith and science is mentioned more than once but nothing comes of it. Indeed, several of the characters vital for these themes are simply killed off as though the writers just wanted to use them to up the body count. At most you could say that events happen and occasionally some message is brought up without any idea what to do with it. Suggesting that these themes might be intended to be explored over several movies is no defense, no movie was ever successfully defended with the words "it works as a part of a trilogy". Either a work stands on its own, or not at all.

So ultimately it is just a failed effort to reclaim what was already done by a better work. It could have been a great film of its own, but sadly is just a let down.