Film Review | Prometheus

Where do we come from? Why are we here? These are some of the questions the sci-fi thriller Prometheus grapples with, all the while regaling us with a steady array of freakish body horror that we've come to associate with its mother franchise.

Prometheus marks director Ridley Scott's return to the seminal film series he helped create: Alien. Ostensibly a loose prequel to that original film, the long-awaited Prometheus expands on some of the clouded back story associated with the trademark phallic-headed, toothy aliens and their hapless human victims.

With a project like this, expectation is bound to be beyond sky-high. Alien has certainly come a long way since Scott first helped birth it in the 80s - there were three sequels, not to mention countless video game and comic book spinoffs - and for a successful science fiction property, 30 odd years is enough time to spawn a veritable army of dedicated, nit-picking fans.

The bare-bones of the story certainly won't give them much to worry about if they're after familiar fare. Following the tried-and-tested model that has served the Alien franchise in good-to-middling stead for decades, the film follows a space expedition landing on a planet that, according to resident boffins Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), may hold the secret to the meaning of life. Shaw and Holloway are convinced that the planet their ship, Prometheus, has been headed to for the past two years is populated by ancient creatures they call the 'Engineers' who, if their archaeological research is correct, are actually the creators of mankind.

But the scientific mission - led by corporate lackey Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and captained by Jarek (Idris Elba) - quickly becomes deadly when the crew discover that the planet's inhabitants may not be what the crew expected them to be.

Meanwhile, Vickers appears to be shielding an ominous corporate agenda, aided and abetted by the ship's ruthlessly efficient android helper, David (Michael Fassbender).

From Rapace riffing on Sigourney Weaver's iconic Ripley character, to gory set pieces that mirror the original Alien film's script-beats almost exactly, there certainly is little sense that Scott is breaking new ground here.

Indeed, while the suggestion that Prometheus serves as a direct link to the previous Alien film is a token one at best - there is a passing mention of a similar vessel in Alien, but nothing more - much of the film's architecture, along with its look, is in direct debt to its predecessor.

But where it interestingly veers off course, it is due to Scott's cranked up thematic focus. Here, he tackles the grandest subject of them all: the meaning of life. And the fact that he ends up doing so through the lens of gore-infested, almost B-movie tropes is almost endearing (watch out for an expected-but-cranked-up 'alien abortion' scene).

Slowly but steadily building up an atmosphere of dread - as the team descend deeper and deeper in grey alien caves strewn with mysterious artefacts - the film descends into madness with a sharp, hysterical shift, confidently delivered by Scott. It's a given that Prometheus is a far more polished product than Alien, now that Scott no longer has to convince studios of its money-raking potential. And yes, this does mean that the overall project has lost some of its rickety, lo-fi charm, but it also creates a space for Scott to indulge in some of his wilder flights of fancy.

Experience and Hollywood-heft also enabled him to assemble a truly high-powered cast. Although she basically riffs off Sigourney Weaver - hair, sporty-toned body, unerotic space-era undergarments and all - the Swedish actress was a dead ringer to slide into that illustrious post, after more than proving her credentials as a badass heroine in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels.

Indeed, her performance is a reminder of just how iconic Weaver's Ripley was to the genre, and here her mirror image is also a strong female character. Theron turns in another great performance as the ship's voice of stern, often sour authority. Vickers is an intergalactic party pooper; she knows it and she loves it.

But it's the aliens we came here for. How you feel about the Engineers and the way their back-and-front story unfolds will largely be down to what you hope Scott has chosen to focus on and expand from the Alien universe.

But by employing the original designs by dark Swiss maestro HR Giger, Scott has planted his feet firmly back into a franchise - hell, it's practically its own sub-genre now! - he has helped create, and that has defined a generation's worth of science fiction.

Just as reaction to Prometheus was mixed, so the prospect of potential sequels is bound to set alarm bells ringing.

But for now, in the wake of offerings like Battleship, we should be thankful that a lovingly crafted bit of science fiction has finally made its way into our cinemas.