TV/Film: Review – Prometheus

I had been waiting for this film for what seemed like an eternity until I eventually went to see it with a few of my housemates last Friday. To say I had huge expectations as I sat there and put my 3D glasses on would be one of the biggest understatements of the century and as I left the theatre a couple of hours later I wasn’t disappointed but I wasn’t blown away either. Don’t get me wrong it is a quality film. The visuals are mind blowing from the opening scene with a behemoth of a flying saucer hanging solemnly in a cloudy grey sky to the finale involving lots of explosions and running. The story is also spectacular but it felt slightly protracted. With an all star cast including Charlize Theron as the cold and calculating Weyland representative Meredith Vickers, Idris Elba as the cool and calm ships captain Janek and Michael Fassbender with a particularly brilliant piece of acting as the ships cyborg David it was never going to be a bad film.

The film itself poses questions about our beginnings and religious themes run parallel to the story of the crews search for the mysterious Engineers who some of them believe created the human race. To try and find these architects they follow ancient star maps found in cave drawings from all over the globe to a distant planet. Things don’t go to plan however as they begin to unearth the truth. There are plenty of Alien references throughout the film with a particular scene involving some extreme self surgery harking back to a certain chest bursting event of films past. Also some aspects link in nicely with the continuous story that Ridley Scott is seemingly trying to create, the end scene particularly, but as a stand alone film it works well. All in all Prometheus is a huge film in it’s ambition, scope and philosophy. In some ways it is slightly too big, with certain aspects falling at the wayside as the next twist in the tail is picked up. However that is not to say it wasn’t a brilliant film, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone. Here’s a trailer to wet your appetite.