Prometheus!!

Yesterday I finally got the chance to see Prometheus. Right before the movie started I think I realized that although my interests are varied; comics, superheroes, fantasy, D&D, my true love is science fiction. Good science fiction. Maybe thats because I was born the day the first man landed on the moon, maybe not. Regardless, I like science fiction because its limitless. You can imagine anything being possible. So with that thought in mind, I was ready for an amazing science fiction movie.

The movie itself was good. Visually it was amazing. The scene where the ship Prometheus was descending onto the planet's surface was beautiful. An almost identical scene, except reversed, showed up at the end of the movie as Dr. Shaw takes off in an alien vessel and leaves the planet. Nice touch. This movie was a subdued prequel to Alien, or at least it used some of the key points in as a framework. One difference in this film was the heavy reliance on H.R. Giger's work. Giger is one of my favorite artists and his designs were some of the basis for the original movie, although they sort of remained in the background. In Prometheus, Giger is everywhere, they celebrate his work. I thought that was a good choice, as his work is sometimes overlooked because of it's gruesomeness. They even went so far as to "steal" from his other movie work, most notably "Dune". The tombs on the alien planet were actually designs for Spice Carriers on Arrakis.

The story is taking a while to sink in. Maybe thats by design, maybe I'm just dense or overthinking it. I really liked the opening scenes, where you flyover a desolate, volcanic landscape, only to focus on a strangely human figure performing some sort of suicidal ritual. Lot's of symbolism. My thought was that he sacrificed himself in order to create mankind. A "God", killing himself, so that a lesser race may evolve. Very fitting. From there we jump from a quick archaeological find to outer space, in a ship full of hibernating crew members save for the creepiest android every created.

I hated David, the android. I immediately had the sense that I wanted him destroyed. He was different, quirky, creepy, arrogant (which is strange because of an android's lack of emotion), and carried a tinge of English mannerisms that bordered on being dandy. His calm, cool, demeanor in any situation gave him a sense of being dangerous, which he ultimately ended up being, or was he? One BIG question, was how he seemed to have pre-knowledge of the alien WMD virus. It seemed like he knew what the alien vases contained, and used it specifically to poison one of the crew. Strategically knowing that he would then sleep with Dr. Shaw, and thus impregnate her, spawning the first facehugger. I don't know, plenty of questions.

I did some research on Prometheus, just to get some perspective. Yes, he gave fire to humans, but did you know that he was responsible for CREATING humans, out of clay? Not Zeus, Prometheus. He was a champion of humankind. He stole and manipulated the Gods in order to help humans. For this he was punished. He was chained to a mountain (the chains were made of adamantium, yes, Wolverine adamantium) only to have an eagle perch on him everyday and eat his liver. Each day was torment and pain as his liver grew back, only to be eaten again the next day, and the next. Why was Zeus so angry? Without humans, Zeus would never have had any fun. In the story, Prometheus is doubly used. It is the name of the ship the humans use to find the planet. It is also inferred that the "Aliens" are our creators, thus, Prometheus. So many more questions.

For example, the Aliens are destroyed by a virus that they had engineered to destroy mankind. Why? That question is left unanswered, apparently opening the door to another movie. But this doesn't fit with the Greek mythology. Why would our creators turn on their creations. Even more strange is that the Creators left clues as to where to find them and their WMDs. Only when humans were advanced enough to travel to the stars would their destruction be necessary. Why? Why would the Creators set their creations up for ultimate failure? The virus is also interesting. It destroys but also creates. It is a recycling mechanism, it kills but it brings life. The original Alien that sacrificed himself, broke down into DNA, that supposedly mixed with whatever else was in the environment to create humans. In the scene, it happens in a waterfall, then you see the DNA swirling around in the mud. CLAY? A reference to the original story? Possibly. In the end, the sole surviving Creator alien turns out to be a dick and kills anything human in arms reach. He's angry. Not nice. It was like he met his illegitimate stepchild for the first time and wanted to get rid of the evidence. He gets his in the end as a strange, Cthulhu-esque creature gets its tentacles on him and implants it's alien seed. As it lays there, dead on the floor, we see a version of the "Alien" alien burst through it's chest. This was sort of a problem though, as it didn't appear as a chest-burster a la the "Alien" series, but came out fully formed, although slightly stylized. Was this meant to explain the original "Space Jockey" from the first "Alien" movie? If so, the setting is completely wrong. He should of been sitting in his navigator chair, not on the floor of some lifepod. Misinformation that doesn't jive with the first movie.

Overall, a good movie, some great visuals, and some huge questions. Not a "10", but a really good scifi movie that didn't rely on cliche storylines. Maybe the bonus is that we get another set of movies that tells the rest of the story. I hope so.

Oh, one more thing. Charlize Theron ended up having a minor role in the movie. She started out power-beeeyotch, but ended up being a crybaby and running away. So be it. Who cares? Charlize Theron looks good in ANY movie you put her in. Period.