Prometheus (2012)
Directed by Ridley Scott
A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.
65 connections found
View:
65 films that influenced Prometheus
What critics say influenced Prometheus
The film continuously presents the audience with obvious parallels to Lawrence of Arabia, a film watched by the android David (Fassbender) in his attempts to gain insight into the folly of humanity’s collective potential/hubris.
The voyage is overseen by Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron), a chilly corporate representative with no scientific interest or imagination, and David (Michael Fassbender), a flaxen-haired android created by Weyland whose seemingly benign demeanor is undercut by his HAL-like vocal cadences, which are amusingly modeled on Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (Fassbender, who was so intense and unhinged in Shame, is quite impeccable in playing the uncanniness of simulated human behavior).
Their ship, the Prometheus, is helmed during the long trip by Weyland’s crowning achievement in robotics, David (Michael Fassbender channeling Peter O’Toole from “Lawrence of Arabia”).
(In a witty conceit, we learn the robot has chosen the unearthly Peter O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia" as his human role model.)
The dark, devilish, creepily compelling “Prometheus” may not be Scott’s own “Lawrence of Arabia.”
David stars in the film's single most original sequence, using the Prometheus as his private playground while the mere mortals that he serves slumber, fixing his hair like Peter O'Toole's after watching Lawrence of Arabia and effortlessly sinking impossible hook shots in the gymnasium.
As always, Fassbender delivers an assured and subtle performance of superb control and physical expressiveness, but the fact that his references are made so explicit is of a piece with “Prometheus’s” derivative style, which nods to everything from “2001: A Space Odyssey” to “Star Trek” as Shaw and her crew explore a darkly forbidding planet.
Prometheus certainly begins differently to the Alien films with a sequence on the Engineers’ home planet that evokes the climatic journey to the alien planet in 2001: A Space Odyssey , with sweeping shots of landscapes that looks similar to that of Earth, but are also otherworldly.
After a prologue that recalls "2001: A Space Odyssey" as much as anything, the film begins in 2089, with scientists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) finding cave drawings that seem to confirm discoveries in other places around the world: Beings from space have visited Earth and are inviting us to visit them.
The movie’s Big Questions hark back to 2001: A Space Odyssey and serve up for food for thought when they’re not bludgeoning you over the head.
His eerily calm, precise demeanor also is reminiscent of the HAL 9000 computer program in "2001: A Space Odyssey," and the pop-culture influences that shape David's habits and speech are a clever celebration of the power of classic cinema in general.
For one thing, in 2093, they're still watching Lawrence of Arabia , or at least androids are, specifically Michael Fassbender's David (a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey , which didn't monkey around with fearful concessions to its audience); amusingly, David takes style cues (and conquest assuagement?) from Peter O'Toole.
I want to remind people that when it came out it was on the heels of "Star Wars" and all the "Star Wars" inspired films that served up likable, even lovable aliens, robots, and exotic creatures.
Let’s put it this way: Prometheus’s relationship to Alien is the equivalent of a Star Wars prequel based in Cloud City before Han Solo and Princess Leia landed; relevant but incidental.
What I loved about the movie, though — among other things — was that it was the anti-“Star Wars.”
Unlike, say, the Star Wars prequels, which felt like they existed simply because there was serious cash to be made, Prometheus does impart a sense of earnest intent.
Although the connections between “Prometheus” and “Alien” don’t fit perfectly (think the glossy “Star Wars” prequels compared to the handmade quality of the original trilogy), the upgraded sci-fi toys are interesting, climaxing in one devilish scene where a character endures impromptu surgery inside the suffocating confines of a medical pod, watching robot arms work their horrifying expertise.
And while the script, by "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelhof and Jon Spaihts, abounds in classic sci-fi references -- everything from " When Worlds Collide " to " The Thing From Another World " gets a nod -- and purposeful narrative intricacies, there are, I must admit, times when it alternates between a certain evident slackness and overkill.
Everything happened in the present to a bunch of working stiffs on a perilous mission — as it had in Alien’s obvious antecedent, the 1951 The Thing from Another World, with a vengeful space creature attacking soldiers and scientists at an isolated outpost.
Advertisement
Although supposedly our point of entry into the narrative, Rapace and Marshall-Green inspire no interest in their fate as a couple, and a scene that calls upon them to perform a wrenching act of sacrifice only reminds one how Brian de Palma, even with a problematic property like 2000’s Mission to Mars, could invest similar material with eloquence and pathos.
When Brian De Palma presented, with Mission to Mars , a much more passionate, and more narratively sound, version of this sort of interplanetary spiritual idealism, it was treated as a “bad” science fiction movie.
Thirty-three years after his “Alien” introduced moviegoers to the terrors of extra-terrestrial life and the horrors of being named “Sigourney,” and 15 years after “Alien: Resurrection” basically ended the franchise (we do not speak of the two “Alien vs. Predator” movies), Ridley Scott returns to outer space with “Prometheus,” a visually arresting but thematically drab sci-fi thriller that’s set in the same fictional universe.
Scott left the sequels to other now-famous filmmakers: James Cameron directed Aliens in 1986, David Fincher did Alien3 in 1992, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet capped off the series (until now) with Alien: Resurrection in 1997.
Alien 3 was a botch job, and Alien: Resurrection was fun but inconsequential.
We did that on a ship in “Alien,” with marines in a space colony in “Aliens,” on a prison planet in “Alien 3” and on a ship again in “Alien: Resurrection.”
Watching Prometheus and then thinking about its predecessors in the Alien quadrilogy (a clumsy term I believe invented for 1997’s Alien: Resurrection), one cannot but recognize the story’s elemental limitations.
Given the state of the Alien franchise (after the underwhelming Alien vs. Predator installments, as well as Alien: Resurrection), it’s no wonder that 20th Century Fox is interested in attracting both the casual moviegoer as well as the die-hard xenomorph faithful.
But the role of spiritual other half by rights belongs to the starship’s valet: a serenely servile android named David, played by Michael Fassbender in a performance reminiscent of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” Dirk Bogarde’s “The Servant” and Peter O’Toole’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” which David studies assiduously to learn how to be human.
But the role of spiritual other half by rights belongs to the starship’s valet: a serenely servile android named David, played by Michael Fassbender in a performance reminiscent of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” Dirk Bogarde’s “The Servant” and Peter O’Toole’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” which David studies assiduously to learn how to be human.
Advertisement
Just be prepared for a plot that reminds me of various reviewers over the years admitting Im not sure whether this movie/book just rips off some Star Trek episode I never saw.…
As always, Fassbender delivers an assured and subtle performance of superb control and physical expressiveness, but the fact that his references are made so explicit is of a piece with “Prometheus’s” derivative style, which nods to everything from “2001: A Space Odyssey” to “Star Trek” as Shaw and her crew explore a darkly forbidding planet.
Composer Marc Streitenfeld’s score recalls Star Trek, which is fitting considering the sense of discovery at the tale’s core.
There are also a number of superfluous crew members who might as well be wearing Star Trek red shirts, for on this trip to meet their makers, many will.
The Matrix Revolutions , Alice in Wonderland , Tron: Legacy , John Carter , the latest Star Trek – rather than simply reveal new worlds, such movies build up the histories and traditions and trinkets of their worlds to the point that the vitality of the film at hand is nearly snuffed out.
But it’s enclosed, in this case, in a shiny-looking vehicle that becomes more and more like your average horror-chase movie as it goes along, channeling not just the entire “Alien” series but also “Blade Runner” and “Avatar” and John Carpenter’s “The Thing.”
Whispers of Shivers (1975), The Thing (1982), Blade Runner (1982) and of course Alien echo in the film’s visual and story inventions, but Prometheus’ existential “where did we come from?” core gives it more scope and ambition than any of those films; note the way it observes, through visions steeped in Christian ethos, the ritualistic act of drinking from a cup.
It’s not like last year’s “The Thing,” which literally ends to lead into the opening shots of the 1982 classic.
Along the way, I thought of 2001, The Thing (Hawks’ and Carpenter’s), and all those fifties sci-fi pictures that ended with “Keep watching the skies!” or a quivering “?” I thought of Lawrence of Arabia, mostly because the movie’s requisite robot-with-a-secret, David (Michael Fassbender), watches David Lean’s epic over and over and picks up Peter O’Toole’s pansexual wonderment as well as excellent posture.
However, unlike last year's unnecessary and fairly misbegotten "The Thing," a film that couldn't decide if it wanted to be a remake or a prequel of John Carpenter's 1982 cult favorite and instead wound up being nothing more than an expensive piece of fan fiction, "Prometheus" is more than able to stand on its own and in fact, it is at his best when Scott and screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof are exploring both the new universe they have created and the intriguing metaphysical questions that they raise in their screenplay.