Prometheus (2012) Film Review: A Conflicted Spectacle

So, the wait is over, and I’ve finally penned my review of the Prometheus 2012 Film. It’s been a full week since my initial viewing—a week dedicated to dissecting and synthesizing thoughts on the creatures, the characters, and their layered significance. Yet, the task of writing this review has loomed. If clarity wasn’t achieved by now, perhaps it never will be.

My anticipation for Prometheus was immense. I was acutely aware of my towering expectations, but I also knew that after the letdowns of Alien: Resurrection and the two abysmal AVP installments, things would need to descend into utter chaos before eliciting true cinematic rage.

Ultimately, my feelings regarding Ridley Scott’s Prometheus remain deeply conflicted. I felt both underwhelmed and completely overawed, simultaneously satisfied and utterly frustrated, excited and irritated, disappointed and thrilled. How does one even begin to untangle this knot of reactions? Even post-viewing, I find myself oddly cautious, torn between succumbing to the film’s obvious glamour and an eagerness to dissect its flaws.

Is it Alien? Unquestionably, no. But then, how could it possibly replicate that original magic? Is it even attempting to replicate Alien? Not in my view; it aims for something far grander, something epic and genuinely groundbreaking.

Visually, the movie is nothing short of stunning. It feels meticulously crafted. I was genuinely impressed by the sets, the visual effects, the creature designs, and the costumes. The scale felt suitably grandiose and epic, masterfully capturing both H.R. Giger’s signature alien-gothic aesthetic and the functional-futuristic utilitarianism reminiscent of Aliens. On this particular front, the film absolutely achieves the epic scale it aspired to.

Prometheus (2012) film still showing Elizabeth Shaw and David the android exploring the alien structure

Clearly, the next domain where Prometheus sought epic proportions was its core concept. My anxieties about the Erich Von Daniken-esque elements of the plot predated my viewing. This specific aspect of the narrative feels poorly handled. While the initial premise of two archaeologists venturing into the cosmos to find our creators was appealing, the portrayal of Elizabeth Shaw’s ‘faith’ and Charlie Holloway’s ‘need’ to discover these beings came across more as convenient plot devices and underdeveloped character motivation than anything substantial. I yearned for genuine, high-concept sci-fi throughout the film, rather than the screen time consumed by creatures like the hammerpedes and the rather underwhelming squid-like facehuggers. I wasn’t anticipating a creature feature; we already possess arguably the most iconic creature ever to emerge from cinema. Why dilute the Alien mythos by introducing these thoroughly underwhelming new additions? This is where the prometheus 2012 film concept falters; it seems to believe it’s far more intellectually profound than its execution suggests. It held the potential to introduce genuinely original and terrifying ideas but instead delivered a handful of squid-like beings, a couple of serpentine creatures, and some generic mutants.

Prometheus also struggles under the weight of too many purported ‘main’ characters. Its most significant misstep is that it over-develops the character of David while leaving Dr. Elizabeth Shaw noticeably underdeveloped. Shaw is presented as a woman with a complicated past, a dense web of beliefs, grappling with her inability to ‘create life,’ and deeply committed to her scientific work. Yet, these intriguing facets are introduced only to be subsequently discarded without meaningful exploration. Among the remaining characters, Vickers, Weyland, and Janek are all criminally underutilized. Considering the extensive promotional coverage Weyland and Vickers received in the lead-up to the film’s release, this feels particularly indefensible.

According to Ridley Scott, this film is not a direct Alien prequel, and there’s a clear justification for that distinction: the movie feels profoundly like the inaugural chapter of an entirely new saga. Very few of the lingering questions from the Alien universe are resolved. On the contrary, we are left with an abundance of fresh mysteries.

One of the most frustrating elements of this film for me centers on the characters of the two archaeologists. They make such sweeping and unsubstantiated assumptions about the Engineers and their technology that it leaves me baffled. Are we, the audience, meant to accept the conclusions they draw at face value, or are we intended to question their reasoning? If the former is true, why are their conclusions arrived at in such an unsupported and speculative manner? If the latter is true, why isn’t this narrative ambiguity made clearer within the film’s structure?

The final area where this Prometheus 2012 Film aimed for epic status is in the rich subtext exploring the themes of creator and creation, and the intricate relationships that exist between them. Most conspicuously, this theme is played out between David, the android, and the human crew—representing mankind and its own synthetic progeny. However, we also observe this dynamic more specifically between David and Peter Weyland, although this relationship ultimately proves frustratingly underdeveloped. For me, the exploration of this subtext is more successful than the execution of the overarching concept, though sadly, this depth comes at the expense of substantial characterization across the board.

Yet, despite these criticisms, I genuinely liked Prometheus. I felt it chipped away slightly more at the edges of the established Alien mythos, even if only to unearth a myriad of new, perplexing riddles. Simultaneously, this strategy feels somewhat like a cheap narrative trick, prioritizing the maintenance of mystery over the provision of genuine substance.

So, in conclusion, I remain firmly torn in my assessment. However, my overall sentiment leans towards Prometheus being a success. It is undeniably a highly entertaining film and a magnificent spectacle to behold, even if it admittedly suffers from a notable lack of narrative and character substance. As a stand-alone entity, it proves ultimately unsatisfying. But if its true intention is to serve as the foundational sequence for a sprawling new narrative within the Alien universe, then this provides a promising, albeit flawed, starting point. What would be required next, however, is a cinematic undertaking of Kubrickian ‘Space Odyssey’ proportions—demanding, first and foremost, a science fiction writer possessing a profound sense of the epic scale and a masterful command of mystery (essentially, an Arthur C. Clarke figure, but crucially, one capable of writing compelling characters). This, I fear, might be an impossible ask.