7:03 a.m. - 2012-06-16
PROMETHEUS PART 1
I watched "Prometheus" last week, so the first thing I should say is that this review contains plot spoilers. Don't read it unless you've already seen "Prometheus," and don't watch "Prometheus" unless you've found yourself a copy of "Alien" and watched that. The marketing of "Prometheus" was too cute by half, but the fact is that it is a prequel to "Alien," though not a very satisfying one.

"Prometheus" is fine as a movie in itself, but as a prequel it didn't work for me. As they like to say about prequels and sequels, "It answered a lot of questions," but I didn't like the answers. The title refers to Greek mythology, specifically the Titan Prometheus, who gave fire to mankind, thus earning the wrath of Zeus and everlasting torture. Central to the plot is a highly advanced race of extraterrestrials (reference "2001, A Space Odyssey," and a book popular more than a generation ago titled "Chariots of the Gods") who millions of years ago seeded the primeval earth with their DNA, giving rise to humans and later somewhat arbitrarily decided to destroy the human race. In their appearance, which recollects classical Greek sculpture, and their capricious treatment of their own creation they are similar to the gods of mythology, and of course the suggestion--stated by the Noomi Rapace character Elizabeth Shaw--is that those very myths are based on this same advanced race.

I've never cared for the Chariots of the Gods explanation for life's origins, because it only moves things back one step. If life came to our planet from elsewhere, how did it arise there?

Shaw is not only a scientist but also a religious person, and the movie does take a look at different interpretations of a Deity. In "Prometheus" our creators were not loving parent figures but rather--in Shaw's words-Engineers. And the suggestion is that the life they engineered on earth was no more than an experiment that had run its course. At the end of the film, Shaw is the only human survivor, but instead of returning to earth as most of us would undoubtedly do under similar circumstances, she decides to find the superior race that created us and discover what their true motives are. Not only does this ending set up a sequel, but it is consistent with Shaw's belief system. The simple answer that the "gods" don't care about us does not satisfy her. She has to know more.

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