Prometheus: A slight disappointment, but deserves more credit

***Spoilers Ahead*** 

PLOT

During the final years of the 21^st century, the crew of a star ship named Prometheus use a star-map – discovered by archaeologists – in an attempt to make contact with a group of life forms believed to be the engineers of mankind.

REVIEW

It is said that you should never overhype a film before its release. The reason for this is because, naturally, the final feature will never be as wonderful as initially envisioned within the mind’s eye (but then if that really is the case, then what’s the point in paying to see a movie if you can dream up a better one for free?).  

For me, this whole overhyping conundrum has seldom been a problem. The last time I went to the cinema with high expectations – only to leave dissatisfied – was back in the summer of 2006 after seeing the abysmal X-men: The Last Stand. Yet all the blockbusters that I endlessly overhyped from then onwards (one example being The Dark Knight) have been an absolute joy to watch.

Yet after seeing Prometheus, I left the cinema feeling that sensation of disappointed wash over me for the first time in many years. My main problem was that I naively went in expecting a film which matched Alien, but obviously, that was never really going to happen.

If you visit the IMDB website, you’ll notice that many other viewers have also expressed great dissatisfaction toward this film; yet despite my opinions above, I actually think some of these users have been a tad too ruthless in several of their judgements. I say this because I didn’t actually dislike Prometheus; in fact, I thought it was a pretty decent and entertaining feature. I mean sure, it did have a hell of a lot of flaws, and the critics are right in saying that the narrative falls apart somewhat during the final hour, but it’s still far better than many are making it out to be.

My main reason for believing this is because that I think that Prometheus does something which many contemporary sci-fi blockbusters fail to do these days; which is that it makes great use of ambiguity within its narrative. Instead of giving us a straightforward and painstakingly explained plot, this film requires us to fill in many of the narrative’s gaps for ourselves.

Many people are attacking the film for not answering enough questions, particularly becoming annoyed at the fact that the film never explains how the ancient star-maps initially arrived on earth (I mean why did the Engineers show ancient civilisations where their military bases were if they planned to use them against us?); that the life-cycle of the [bio-weapon] creatures is far too unclear/nonsensical; that the hostile motives of the Engineers is never clearly explained; and that there’s no account as to how the Engineers or Xenomorphs make it from LV-223 to LV-426 in time for Alien (although director Ridley Scott has announced two more potential sequels).  I can empathise with people who are dissatisfied with the lack of explanation, however, I quite enjoyed being allowed to fill in these plot gaps for myself, without having being told explicitly where all of the narratives pieces are suppose to go.  

The narrative of Prometheus reminded me to some extent of the film Source Code (2011). When Source Code first begins, the audience has little knowledge on the events of the story. As the narrative progresses, we begin to develop a much greater understanding of the initial premise. Yet as one plot ambiguity is explained, more questions force their way into the story.  

We soon understand that Colter Stevens is involved in a programme known as the Source Code project and that his mission is to locate the bomber of a commuter train whilst occupying the consciousness of another man during his final eight minutes of life; but as soon as we realise this, the plot changes in shape. Now audiences are wondering why Stevens is involved in such a project; what the consequences are if Stevens alters history during this eight minute window; and whether or not Stevens can continue to occupy the identity of this man if he survives beyond these final eight minutes.   Source Code’s narrative is so fluid in its behaviour that it begins its life as a whodunit sci-fi thriller, only to end as a film that questions the ethics of time travel and tangent realities. It grows from a single lined premise into something far grander in scale.

Prometheus – in my opinion –is similar in its nature. It begins as a film about a group of archaeologists journeying to meet their creators, only to end with the story’s hero sailing off into the stars, determined to discover why her inventors wish to wipe her race out. Instead of looking at this climax as a messy and poorly executed story, maybe we could view it as a metaphor for the pursuit of human origin. Countless humans have strived to discover the meaning behind their existence – be it through religion, philosophy, or science – only to discover more questions and mysteries are waiting along the way. Maybe if we view Prometheus as an analogy for this human conundrum – as well as an analogy for the obscurities of our universe – then maybe we can learn to see this film from an entirely new perspective.

Rating: 3/5 Stars