Prometheus as a movie, is visually stunning. But as a story, it's heavily misunderstood. Hours before going to the theater for the last full show, I checked the current rating via IMDB and saw negative reviews complaining about how 'stupid' the Prometheus crew was, and how the viewers easily saw plot holes in the storyline and asking for explanation or perhaps an extended version or a director's cut for its upcoming DVD release.
Acknowledging the fact that at least they are hoping to understand the story, it becomes a different matter when at the same time they blame Ridley Scott for not meeting the general expectation. You can always blame the director and the scriptwriter but after seeing it myself, I don't consider the story as a failure. It was actually
well-executed. Why? Let's see first the general complaints:
1 The crew has no idea nor plan about the scientific expedition to an undisclosed planet. They are sloppy.
2 Elizabeth Shaw doesn't act like a scientist at all in being religious and keeping the faith.
3 The science aspect here is kinda stupid because the characters gambled a lot.
4 It would only take one crew member to sacrifice and destroy the enemy and would have saved the others than taking a whole bunch of crew to do it.
My answer to these are simple:
1 It's true, the crew has no plan nor idea about the expedition because the real plan is actually
hidden from them by Peter Weyland himself and his executor, the android David. That's the reason why the crew was sloppy in doing their fieldwork, they are just mere pawns of the game, a game controlled by the master manipulator Weyland.
2 All scientists believe in something. Whether that belief anchors on something material or unseen, verifiable or improbable, it's still a belief and no unbelieving moron can take it against them. There's such a thing in this world as a Christian Scientist as well as a Liberation Theologist, and so on and so forth. There's even a scientist who is supersitious and it happens. Elizabeth Shaw is exactly like that, she got the
instinct that actually helped her survive the ordeal.
3 The science aspect looked stupid, but it's for a purpose and still, an important aspect of the story. All scientists know that sometimes they need to gamble or take some unmeasured risk. Looking at history of science,
Benjamin Franklin would never have discovered electricity if he never risked his own life. He really looked stupid flying a kite in the middle of a thunderstorm but no one would think that he's stupid after what he accomplished.
Madame Marie Curie would never have discovered the X Ray if she never gambled her health in repetitive experiments inside her highly radioactive laboratory. Those who are thinking that a scientist must never gamble or take risks are probably living inside a cave.
4 Yes, it would take only one crew to launch a destroyer or perhaps, a nuclear armed ship to destroy the enemy but first he needs to be certain about his enemy. You have to know who is your target first, and this is the reason why the expedition team is sent. The scientists were not thinking of any hostile motive based on the archeological findings from Earth that were originally interpreted as an 'invitation' from the 'creator.' But when the time came for an imminent danger that needs to be halted, it was also a majority decision to sacrifice three lives in exchange for mankind's safety. Is this a fair exchange? I believe so.
Noomi Rapace is a worthy actress to take the pedestal vacated by Sigourney Weaver as the ball-busting smart chick. Michael Fassbender fits exactly to the role of the manipulative android, and Charlize Theron is still a hot tamale. Prometheus is obviously made as a prequel to the Alien series but this movie can go on with a new series (as I envisioned), given the fact that Liz and David stole the Engineers ship to an unidentified planet (probably Earth) somewhere in space. In the end, Elizabeth's warning message here is the same message that Ripley intercepted and interpreted as a distress signal in Alien. And we all know what happened after that.
In space, nobody can hear you scream. This is a classic qoute from the first Alien movie. But for Prometheus, the qoute is preferably like this:
In space, nobody can hear you complain. And it's better that way.
Genre: Sci Fi, Horror
Rating: 88%
images owned by Scott Free Productions
