prometheus (2012) review
“Polarizing” is an overused movie descriptor. Prometheus earns it. Directed by the legendary and highly respected Ridley Scott, the movie was marketed as a pseudo-sequel within the Alien(s) universe that would provide definitive answers to questions we knew to ask – and many we didn’t. In a development that set the internet ablaze and had genre fans giddy with excitement, the trailer - one of the best ever made - teased that we would finally be shown the origins of the mysterious Space Jockey from the original Alien film. Cut to Prometheus and we discover the Space Jockey was part of a group of alien but essentially humanoid beings capable of interstellar travel, described as “Engineers.” The Space Jockey was an Engineer in a containment suit/rebreather. This is one of the only clear-cut answers provided by the film. In present day we know the mysterious and seemingly random black goo featured in Prometheus was a biological weapon used on multiple planets for thousands of years by the engineers to create life…and destroy it. One can gather a fairly complete picture of the Engineers gene-tampering machinations from Ridley Scott sound-bites, 2017’s Alien Covenant (the special feature content on the blu-ray is equally useful as the film) as well as from the many excellently written expanded universe graphic novels. I imagine it’s frustrating for the more casual fan that all of the aforementioned were released well after Prometheus. I urge you to go back and watch again with the added context. You might just discover, as is my opinion, that Prometheus is the best film in the Alien(s) universe since Aliens. Final thought: Ridley Scott is clearly more interested in synthetic life/androids than xenomorphs. For evidence, see Raised by Wolves (we've reviewed it). It's his amazingly thought-provoking series streaming now on HBO Max.
Prometheus receives a score of 7.5/10 for casual fans and a score of 9/10 for those willing to do the homework (I know, you shouldn’t have to) to fill in the blanks.