★★★
Prometheus is a very different movie from Alien. A lot of fans are complaining that Prometheus takes on so much explanatory detail that it is confusing and ultimately doesn’t make sense. And that all the detail dilutes the thrills. I wouldn’t totally disagree with that opinion, but if you just look at the broad brushstrokes, this is still a fun summer movie with outstanding special effects.
The visuals are very well thought out and wonderful to watch in 3D. Prometheus has the same vast scale of Alien, the same claustrophobia, and the same stark lighting. Dusty scenes that are cut through with searchlights and flashlights create depth and scale and give the visuals a plausible feel. There are quotes and echoes of Alien throughout. The angular bulkheads of the first movie look familiar here, and so do the helmeted spacesuits with their camera feeds and interior lights.
On the other hand, transparent circuit boards seem to have replaced the tubes and wires of the older film, and this small difference in design points to the large difference in the two movies: Alien is a simple horror flic that uses its sets to add to the viewers’ tension, while Prometheus has moved away from horror in pursuit of larger sci-fi themes. Unfortunately, it’s this move toward greater sci-fi that complicates and ultimately undercuts the film.
Seen in a large perspective, Prometheus starts with a slow development and gets more and more intense as the stakes and the violence rise. A lot like Alien. But Prometheus also becomes more dilute as it adds layers of complication like the subplot of Weyland appearing on the Prometheus and the seemingly gratuitous references to Lawrence of Arabia (and why was Charlise Theron’s character even in the movie?). But the more the dilution increases, the more the film loses energy and coherence. If you eventually begin to question the motivation for some of the actions in the film, Prometheus loses the amiable unity you’re willing to grant it in pursuit of your cinematic thrills, and you have to resort to thinking that you liked it despite it's finer incoherence, which is my conclusion.
Prometheus might be on the path to becoming the poster movie for those postmodern film theorists who say films don’t need to be coherent to be good. Michael Bay regularly puts together incoherent action scenes to create chases and fights, but Prometheus does this on a larger scale by putting characters and events together without the tight logic of a traditional story. But whether postmodern or just badly scripted, with its great visuals and larger story structure, Prometheus is still a fun way to spend a couple of summer hours.
