Prometheus - To Be Continued...

(2012) ★★★★★

Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? These are the questions we’ve been wondering for ages, and yet we haven’t found the answers. Prometheus is thus built to search for our origins. The film’s set in the near future when we humans can travel far enough to reach a planet’s moon where we believe we’ll meet our Makers, or say, Engineers as they describe in the film. So the next question is, why’d they want to make us? What is the point?

‘Prometheus’ is obviously more grandiose and ambitious than ‘Alien’. The latter is simply there to scare the hell out of us with long silences and shadows, while the former is not only to let us experience a different sense of horror by introducing grosser infections and alien things, but also to make us think big questions that’d inevitably shake our faith. The more you think about them, the more uneasy you’ll feel for sure.

This film has a very intriguing opening where a humanoid sees a flying saucer and drinks up something that causes painful body decay. Then it falls off the cliff and its DNA starts to reconstruct in the water. Why would it do that? What does this scene imply? Is it our Creator, Maker, Engineer, or God? Darwinism is definitely challenged here.

Like any other films, there’re scenes and characters that don’t really make sense to viewers but of them all, two are pretty impressive. One is Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) who seems vulnerable yet very determined and resourceful. She may not look as tough and heroic as Sigourney Weaver in ‘Alien’, but her character is absolutely more convincing and realistic. The other is the android played by Michael Fassbender, seriously charismatic and mysterious at the same time. It seems that he’s got a hidden agenda, but we don’t know what it is yet, not even after we finish the film.

Like it or not, ‘Prometheus’ doesn’t give answers to big questions above. It leaves us many more unanswered instead. We do get to meet our Engineers, but why’d they want to destroy us so bad? If they make us, what makes them? Who exactly are we? What exactly are we here for? Maybe we’ll find the so-called answers in sequels hopefully. Maybe we never will. We don’t expect there’ll be a simple answer, do we? Last but not least, do we have to care?