In this review, I will cover all aspects of the film PROMETHEUS - from acting to plot - and my own personal views on the film. I have included additional analysis and speculation based on the events which take place throughout the film. This review does contain spoilers! Therefore, I would advise that you wait to read this until you have seen PROMETHEUS for yourself. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy my take on PROMETHEUS.

Overall

Overall, PROMETHEUS is a well-rounded film with many plot twists and turns, which keep you guessing till the credits roll. The acting was great, the visuals were incredible, the plot was fantastic and the ending - well, it couldn't be better! Now, this is merely a sum-up of everything I will cover in full, if you continue to read on. Please see why I gave PROMETHEUS a near perfect score and why I have made these judgements. Read on for the in-depth look at Ridley Scott's PROMETHEUS.

The Beginning

Every great story must have a great beginning and with PROMETHEUS you certainly get just that. With such profound questions as 'Where did we come from?'; 'What happens when we die?'; 'Why are we here?'; 'Who created us?' It is evident that PROMETHEUS has a lot of expectations to live up to. The premise of PROMETHEUS is that humans were genetically created by an alien race of super-beings called 'Engineers'. These Engineers choose a planet which can sustain life and the Engineers then travel across the universe to it. From there, one Engineer must sacrifice himself by taking a mixture of Alien Bio-Former (a term that was adopted by fans) which essentially breaks down the Engineer's DNA. From there, the Engineer is destroyed and his DNA is spread to mix with that of the native planet. From there life is created and evolved to what we have become today.

The questions posed in this story do not contradict science or religion as the most profound question is still left unanswered - where did the Engineers come from? This is never explained, and it is implied that we may see a glimpse of that in a sequel to PROMETHEUS, based on how the film ends.

All in all, the film starts off very well, covering all the bases so the audience understands what is going on. We see fantastic footage of various parts of the Earth in its early stages of development. From there, cave paintings are discovered on the Isle of Skye which lead our scientists: Elizabeth Shaw, (played by Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway, (played by Logan Marshall-Green) to the next step in unlocking our greatest mysteries: TAKING PART IN THE PROMETHEUS MISSION TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE UNIVERSE TO A DISTANT GALAXY IN AN ATTEMPT TO DISCOVER THE SECRETS TO MANKIND'S CREATION.

The Cast and Characters

The cast was well-picked in my opinion. Noomi Rapace (Shaw), Michael Fassbender (David), Charlize Theron (Vickers), Guy Pearce (Weyland), Logan Marshall-Green (Holloway) and Idris Elba (Janek) all gave excellent performances and held substantial roles in the film. The rest of the cast also contributed greatly to the development of the plot. Considering the time frame of the film, the character development was fantastic and left me feeling satisfied with understanding each of their personalities.

I should note that by far my favorite cast member was Michael Fassbender, who played DAVID. His role was probably the most difficult to get right. As an android, Fassbender executed every line and every gesture perfectly. David truly is remarkable. Not as 'friendly' as Bishop and not as neutral as 'Ash' - but a great mixture of a sarcastic, insightful, and a little bit sinister, personality. Would I call David the 'bad guy'? Not necessarily, but I would certainly say he is the one with the most secrets throughout the film - and a manipulative negotiator. There is definitely a lot more to David than what we see in PROMETHEUS!

Noomi Rapace and Charlize Theron also did a phenomenal job in this film. Noomi's character, Elizabeth Shaw, goes through quite a transformation throughout the film -- from being the soft spoken, shy scientist, to a take-control, kick-some-ass kind of heroine! Charlize's character, Meredith Vickers, is consistent throughout the film, and does a fantastic job at portraying that cold, dark, corporate suit. At times, I thought she might have been an Android - who's to say she isn't? I'm sure Captain Janek (Idris Elba) could give some insight to that (insert laughter); but still, it was never confirmed in the film and thus leaves me to speculate.

The Music

I rather enjoyed the music score for PROMETHEUS. Would I have liked to hear the deep siren noises from the trailers? Yeah, but the music they chose worked well enough. To be honest, it reminded me a lot of Star Trek. It did fit the tone of the film for the most part, and I have nothing to complain about, except for perhaps a darker tone during some scenes and maybe a more profound tone for those revealing scenes could have heightened the suspense. The score did sound about the same throughout the entire film. But did it take away from my experience? Definitely not!

The Plot

The plot of PROMETHEUS was fairly evident from the trailers - a team goes to an alien world in an attempt to 'Meet our Makers' and, in the process, something goes horribly wrong. I rather enjoyed the plot - it has a great build up to the pinnacle moments and offers a lot of questions to ponder and discuss after leaving the cinema. During the film, David activates a kind of holographic recording where we witness a group of Engineers running away from 'something' - we never really find out what. We can assume of course, but that question was left unanswered. One interesting thing to note is that at one point, while David is inspecting the hieroglyphs on the wall of the Engineer Temple, we get another nod to ALIEN with David finding some slimy textured substance - much like the 'drool' characteristics we tend to find in every ALIEN film - a result from the salivating alien itself. So - could an alien have gotten loose in the Temple forcing the Engineers to abandon their stations? Or seek refuge until the beast was contained? Hopefully, we will find out in a later sequel!

The introduction of the many different creatures was fair for the most part. I will go into more depth later on in this review, but as a quick sum-up, the black substances leaking from the Urns found in the Ampule Room had many different effects on what it came into contact with. It turned (what looked to be) earthworms into snake-like parasites which very much resembled a Facehugger, minus the legs. Unfortunately, you don’t see very much of this alien for the rest of the film - I would have liked to see it spawn some new breed of alien from its host, but I guess that can wait for PROMETHEUS 2. The other affected host of the Bio-Former was Fifield who, as we all assume, gets mutated to be this psychotic beast which attacks the crew of the Prometheus. Evidently he's very hard to kill - but not immortal.

In a sinister act, David pollutes Holloway's drink with the contents he found in one of the Urns, which he brought back to the Prometheus upon exiting the Engineer Temple. This scene stood out for me as a pinnacle moment - Is David acting out of 'anger' towards Holloway? Or was it staged? Hmmm. There wasn't much time from David's discovery of this substance to when he secretly infects Holloway with it, so I am assuming he did not like Holloway from the start and acted rather 'human' in his attempt to contaminate him.

From that point, Holloway and Shaw evidently share a passionate moment, which leads to Shaw becoming infected with a new breed of alien -- a mixture of Holloway's infected genome and Shaw's own. It's important to note that Shaw was unable to have children of her own, so this comes as a very shocking and disturbing surprise to her when David informs her of her situation. More on this later in the Review.

The Ending

The ending, for me, was great. It shows just enough to keep you hungry for more, while reassuring you that your questions will be answered in a follow-up sequel. It would be absurd for Ridley Scott and 20thCentury Fox Studios not to pursue a PROMETHEUS sequel -- considering how they left the PROMETHEUS ending.

I won't give away too much of the ending, but it basically ends with Shaw and David leaving in another Engineer vessel to attempt to find out where the Engineers came from. How David knows this, I'm not sure, as it is not clearly explained. But regardless, it leaves us with an interesting conclusion. One thing can be said though - this is NOT a direct prequel to ALIEN - there is so much left to discover before we get to the events of ALIEN, which is what makes this such a great film!

The following is my own personal analysis of various aspects of the film PROMETHEUS - its development, its revelations, and where I think it's headed in future sequels.

The Engineer Race

First off, we learn that the Engineers share the same DNA structure as us Humans, which seemed very evident based on the look of them during the opening scenes of the film. This correlates to the Biblical scripture regarding creation - as 'GOD created US in HIS image'.

The Engineer is first introduced as a humanoid creature wearing a cloak. His skin is bright white with incredible muscle tone and size, as well as having very dark, black eyes. He is looking up at a massive circular vessel (your classic UFO) as it departs from planet Earth and ascends into the sky - leaving the Engineer to sacrifice himself in order to create life on this new world. Questions are raised here – are the beings who dropped this Engineer off on Earth, the Engineer's creators? Or is that large UFO-style vessel the main 'mother ship', if you will, of the Engineer race? The classic derelict 'Bone Ship' space vessel, which is present in both ALIEN and PROMETHEUS, looks much different than that of this circular behemoth.

As we meet our other Engineer in the Temple (upon David waking him up), he is wearing a bio-mechanic suit. The Engineer who sacrifices himself on Earth is wearing a cloak. Why? My theory is that the Engineers on LV-223 (the moon on which PROMETHEUS takes place) are the 'military' of the Engineers - and, as Captain Janek speculates in the film; that the temples on this moon are actually military testing facilities. This is where they develop the biological weapons, which will aid them in the cleansing of planets before creating new life. Or -- are they to be used as weapons of war against other races throughout the universe? One thing is for sure, LV-223 is NOT the Engineer home world.

Janek's theory (being the most accurate in my opinion!) leaves us with so much more to explore. What does the rest of the Engineer race look like? How do they behave? The Engineers presented in PROMETHEUS are hostile and brutal. They regard their creations as enemies rather than children. Could this be true for the rest of the species? Or did we just catch one Engineer having a bad day?

They Planned to Wipe Us Out 2,000 Years Ago!

In PROMETHEUS, we learn that the Engineers were originally planning to take a ship full of destructive cargo to Earth 2,000 years prior to the events of PROMETHEUS - in order to exterminate all life in order to start fresh and create something new, a higher-evolved breed of human perhaps? We never really understand much about the reasoning behind this plot - but David simply puts it as 'Sometimes you must destroy in order to create'.

So, with this knowledge, obviously something had gone wrong during the preparation of this extermination that forced the Engineers to abandon their work and seek refuge by hiding in a secured area of their Temple. Locking them inside until someone would come to wake them up again.

We also see that the Engineers possess the technology of cryosleep - keeping the Engineer alive and healthy while they sleep for years upon years.

The Worm-Alien (Hammerpede)

This new parasite is actually a mutation of a couple of worms that resemble earthworms. Upon entering the Ampule Room, the crew sets off a chain reaction to the atmosphere in the room and the Urns begin to emit a black fluid - which we can safely call 'Bio-Former'. This Bio-Former mutates the genetic structure of whatever organic life it comes into contact with. It would seem that each Urn possesses a different 'type' of Bio-Former, as each organic life form that comes into contact with this substance mutates differently.

These worm-like parasites closely resemble a Facehugger, but without the addition of crab-like legs. We see two present in the film - only one really makes a solid appearance as it attacks Rafe Spall's character 'Milburn' by latching onto his arm. This new alien parasite reacts very much like the Facehugger, in that it coils its tail around its victim and squeezes harder and harder the more it is provoked or tampered with. Fifield attempts to kill this new alien after it breaks Milburn's arm (jutting the bone out of the suit, creating an opening) by cutting its head off. This causes acidic-blood to shoot out of the newly cut alien that sprays all over Fifield's helmet. From there, the creature rapidly grows a new head!

This, I would imagine, is a trait carried over from its original state as a worm, as some (if not all) worms possess the ability to re-grow the severed parts of their bodies. This is a very interesting characteristic of this new alien, which could pose some serious problems in later films if it is re-introduced. Much harder to kill than a Facehugger for sure!

I really liked how Ridley and the crew stuck to this franchise's roots and stayed true to H.R Giger's original concepts. The links to the Facehugger are very evident and pose so many more questions for us fans, like how many other versions of the Face/Armhugger are there? If a worm created this kind of Arm/Facehugger, what created the Facehugger we see in ALIEN? A spider, perhaps?

One thing I will note is I wish they had given these new aliens a little more screen time. The crew doesn't investigate them much, and the Wormhugger seen escaping from Milburn's dead body is never seen again. It doesn't attempt to kill any of the other crew members and just disappears. I would have liked to see more from this alien. Perhaps we'll see it re-introduced in PROMETHEUS 2.

Fifield's Mutation

Following Fifield's 'melt-down' (pun intended) upon being sprayed with acid from the cut 'Hammerpede', some of the black Bio-Former leaks onto his face once the acid burns through his helmet. This of course sets off a similar reaction as with the worms, and Fifield mutates. Now, in this mutation process, he becomes abnormally strong and very hard to kill. It's like he's possessed and has no regard for his own life, but becomes a mindless killing machine. He is, however, afraid of fire.

An interesting thing to note: the myth of Prometheus is that Fire's the greatest gift to Mankind; and Fire seems to be Mankind's only defence against most of the creatures they encounter on this expedition. (At first with Holloway's death, and then Fifield's)

Holloway's Infection

Upon David 'spiking' Charlie's drink with the Bio-Former he retrieves from one of the Urns, Holloway's mutation takes much longer than Fifield's. It is interesting to note that Holloway did not turn into a mindless killing machine, but did start to show the characteristics that mimicked that of the 'Sacrificed Engineer' in the beginning of the film; by having his veins turn black and his skin start to deteriorate.

Holloway surrenders himself to Vickers' flamethrower, in an attempt to protect Shaw and the rest of the crew from what he fears may ensue from his mutation if left alive. This was an emotional scene with realistic reactions from Shaw – being emotionally attached to Holloway. We see Holloway's body completely engulfed in flames as he slowly dies. Even Vickers seems to be shocked and horrified by what she sees.

Shaw's Baby

Earlier in the film, we learn that Shaw is infertile, and unable to support life. This scene leads to a passionate moment between Holloway and Shaw (after he was infected by the Bio-Former). The following morning, Holloway notices something in his eye, which later turns into a full mutation process that leads to the scene mentioned above. But, for Shaw, there is more going on inside her during this - as later on David is inspecting her and concludes that she is 3 months pregnant, with an 'abnormal foetus'. Shocked, Shaw insists that David remove it, but David responds by noting that the kind of medical attention and surgery required is not present on the Prometheus and insists that she be put in cryosleep to preserve the creature inside and slow down its development.

Shaw of course does not like that idea and runs out of the room to Vickers' private lifeboat and initiates surgery via the Weyland Med Pod 720i automated surgical device. Unfortunately, the machine is calibrated only for a man– so after some configuration, Shaw manages to get the Med Pod to perform a C-section and removed the abnormal foetus. It doesn't take long and the foetus wakes up. With its tentacles flaring, it is suspended by the Med Pod's arm and Shaw manages to escape.

Near the end of the film, we learn that Shaw's baby has grown to be an immense creature, with huge tentacles. The creature resembles a large, very early stage of 'Facehugger', possibly the very first Facehugger ever.

This Facehugger is large and inefficient, and is a great start to the evolution of this creature and was approached in a great way by Ridley and the crew. I rather liked the design. Surely the first of any species is not perfect. It must adapt and evolve and, as we know from the ALIEN films, the Alien itself is known for its ability to adapt and evolve.

New Alien; Engineer Hybrid 'Bodyburster'

Upon Shaw unleashing her 'baby', the overly large Facehugger-like alien grabs the Engineer who had escaped the crashed Juggernaut (the name of the derelict ship they discover in the temple) with its large, powerful tentacles. The Engineer, being very physically strong, puts up a good fight and tries to break free from the new Facehugger's grip; going to great lengths to even prop himself against the frame of the door to the room in which it's contained. Unfortunately, the Facehugger reveals a very Alienesque characteristic by showing an inner jaw between rows of teeth, as well as a second set of tentacles, which grip the Engineer's head. The inner jaw extruding from the Facehugger (similar to the proboscis-like appendage in the classic Facehugger from ALIEN) and enters the Engineer's mouth.

After this, the Engineer loses strength and falls to the ground, only to have this gigantic Facehugger lie on top of him and fully encase the Engineer. We later see that the Facehugger has seeded the Engineer with an embryo, which rapidly grows and later births a horrific new alien.

This new Alien does not start out as a small Chestburster-like in ALIEN, but instead rips the entire front torso of its host revealing a much more gruesome death. The alien itself resembles that of the Alien seen in Alien 3, based on how large it is upon being born. It is quite large and semi-adult, we're assuming. It has no eyes and its dome skull is pointed like a shark fin at the back, instead of being round like in the other Alien films. The pointed end of this Alien's dome head is also the tool it used to break out of the Engineer's body. You could call this alien a 'Bodyburster'.

At the end scene, this new alien reveals one aspect which would make any Alien fan smile -- a very disturbing, creepy second jaw which actually causes the Alien's main set of jaws to kind of pop out of place and extend, like a snake's jaw might in order to accommodate larger prey. I rather love the look of this new alien breed, and I find it very creepy and horrific! It will do great in the later PROMETHEUS sequels.

Shaw's Transformation

Noomi Rapace did a spectacular job throughout the entire film. From start to finish, she remained intriguing and entertaining. Her character transformation from a shy, positive scientist, to hardened heroine in the span of an hour. Brilliantly executed! We can definitely see the nod to Sigourney's Ellen Ripley from ALIEN; especially in the final scene where, as Shaw and David leave LV-223 to investigate the origins of the Engineers, she leaves us with a 'signing off' recording, very reminiscent to that of Ripley's at the end of ALIEN. When Shaw utters the words 'This is Elizabeth Shaw, last survivor of the Prometheus signing off' I felt totally satisfied by this film and just recalled ALIEN. I had to sit there for a minute and believe, just for a second, that I have, in fact, just witnessed the rebirth of this iconic franchise.

David: The Best Android Yet

Michael Fassbender's performance in PROMETHEUS was spectacular and as I stated earlier, probably my favorite of the lot. David is by far the best android yet because he offers more in-depth feeling and a creepy, sinister side which stays constant throughout the film. His attitude and sarcastic style of conversation was very entertaining and fit the tone well. I applaud Fassbender's performance -- because playing an artificial person could not have been easy!

Weyland-Yutani Confusion

It was implied earlier on in the viral marketing, that we might see a corporate merger between the Weyland Corporation and the Yutani Corporation. This was never presented in PROMETHEUS nor even touched upon. We only see Weyland as being the dominant player in this mission. But with Mr. Weyland himself and Meredith Vickers both dead at the end of the film, perhaps the company then needs to merge with Yutani in order to stay afloat. A trillion dollars is a lot of money for any corporation.

The Big Questions Left Unanswered

As most will agree, PROMETHEUS leaves us with many new questions. More questions than answers I would say. But, this is exactly what was intended for this film. This is the start of something very new and must remain true to the universe in which it is placed. Co-writer Damon Lindelof has even been quoted as saying that PROMETHEUS is planned to spawn two sequels; one ending with ALIEN, and the other taking the franchise off on another tangent of the same universe - all the while still keeping the Alien DNA elements in place. So to expect that all the questions would be answered in PROMETHEUS would be ludicrous and unrealistic. PROMETHEUS is not a direct ALIEN prequel by far, but it is a prequel to some incredible films still to come. I have the utmost faith in Ridley Scott, Damon Lindelof, and 20thCentury Fox Studios to pursue this franchise for many years to come. It has way more potential than any other franchise I can think of.

But as for the questions: I'm going to list a few that I have after watching PROMETHEUS:

1- What is that Black Goo and what does it do? What can it do? How will it be used in later films?
2- What will the adult alien look like which bursts from the Engineer? Does it grow to be a Queen and lay the eggs that are harvested by Engineers later on? What is that 'sack' attached to the alien after it bursts from the Engineer? A makeshift umbilical cord? Or is it the material required to construct the first egg?
3- What is to become of the Wormhuggers? Do they deposit a seed that gestates in a host? Will they return in PROMETHEUS 2?
4- How does the Facehugger evolve? What hosts mix is left to complete the process and give us our classic Xenomorph?
5- Why did the Engineers plan to visit Earth 2,000 years ago? Was it to destroy us? Or was it to evolve us?
6- When does Weyland become Weyland-Yutani?
7- Who made the Engineers? Will we find out?
8- When will PROMETHEUS 2 begin production?

Conclusion

In conclusion, my verdict still stands as PROMETHEUS being a near-perfect film. It answers many questions we've had, and brings to light a whole new set which we can all speculate over for years to come. The level of insight, philosophy, and the ambiguity of this film is spectacular, and just what I wanted to see.

PROMETHEUS is not only a great return to the Alien franchise; it is a fantastic start of something new! Ridley Scott has done it again and with such a brilliant cast and great writers, PROMETHEUS is one for the history books. It is a true masterpiece from start to finish, visually stunning and mindfully thrilling.

PROMETHEUS exceeded my expectations and left me very hungry for more. I want to thank Ridley Scott, Damon Lindelof, Jon Spaihts, Arthur Max, the entire cast and 20thCentury Fox Studios, for bringing back true science fiction and, finally, giving us a film which makes us think. I loved every minute and I am very eagerly anticipating the many sequels to come. PROMETHEUS has once again set the bar for what science fiction should be, just as ALIEN did back in 1979.

Discuss Prometheus

Be sure to check out the Prometheus Forums here to discuss the questions which have been raised in Prometheus, as well as to view other theories from other fans!

Browse & Discuss

The Engineer Race and their many secrets!

The Black Goo/Bio-Former Witnessed in Prometheus

The New Aliens in Prometheus

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