There's plenty of action in Ridley Scott's Alien-esque sci-fi flick, but -- watch out! -- there are also ideas

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Michael Fassbender (CP)

Movie review

Prometheus

• Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron
• Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, Polo Park IMAX, St. Vital, Towne
• 14A
• 124 minutes
• Four stars out of five

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Logan Marshall-Green, left, Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender. (CP)

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Charlize Theron and Idris Elba (CP)

The excitement was bubbling like a blister, oozing a warm but also haunting sense of nostalgia. The very idea that Ridley Scott was going back to the hostile landscapes of Alien was enough to let my critical immunity slacken, and allow the beast to blossom inside me once more.

Yes, I crave communion with the black beast. We all do, at some primal level or another, because Alien accessed and questioned our very identity as human beings, pushing us to find our redeeming elements in the face of something entirely Other.

It's this tantalizing dynamic of humanity-vs.-Other that gives the Alien franchise its raw power, and for this reason, Scott gets immediate credit for picking up the core theme at an embryonic stage in Prometheus.

Kicking things off on our very own planet Earth, we're introduced to a pair of scientists: Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green). The year is 2083, and they have just stumbled into one of the most interesting cave paintings ever recorded: It shows a giant man pointing to the heavens, where a pattern of orbs looks awfully familiar.

By the time our two scientists, who also happen to be lovers, make their big speech explaining what they've found, they're already on a space ship, and the lecture they offer on cave paintings explains why they're orbiting around an unknown planet halfway across the galaxy.

The competitive academic couple believe the painting they found on Earth mirrors other early hominid art, suggesting there may be a common origin among mankind -- an origin that isn't earthly, but alien.

Shaw and Holloway believe they can prove their alien-origin theory, and perhaps even explain the earliest drive at religion, by documenting the presence of giant alien beings -- or "Titans" -- elsewhere in the universe.

Gurgling with enthusiasm, as well as ego, the not-so-dynamic duo educate their shipmates about what they might find once they land on the planet. They also insist all weapons are left behind.

Of course, this is a very bad idea. Because we are educated observers, we know there are hostile forces out there, but the Prometheus landing party is a group of wide-eyed seekers full of benevolent faith. It's what makes these innocent galactic "babies" so lovable: they are pure of heart -- mostly.

Injected into the mix are darker forces full of ego needs and existential emptiness, including the corporate mogul Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), ship CEO Meredith Vickers (Charlize Theron) and the must-have artificial entity, David (Michael Fassbender).

Alien fans will recognize this collection of characters because even though they are different from the crew of the Nostromo, the ship from the original Alien, they share similar human traits.

Scott created a complex micro-community in space where the defining forces of human nature are given a chance to express themselves, and compete for survival, and he attempts to do the same thing here.

Yet, whether it's a result of the script or the talent, the crew of Prometheus never creates the same chemistry as their cinematic predecessors. Most of the characters feel one-dimensional because they are fastened to one aspect of the human condition.

Whether it's the touchie-feelie biologist who thinks the odd-looking eel-like creatures with bulbous, flesh-coloured heads are "female," or the curmudgeonly geologist who wanted to bring the guns, the characters feel more like blunt thematic tools than anything grounded in real emotion.

While this creates the biggest problem in an otherwise smart and stunning blend of visuals and story, it doesn't cause a hull breach in the franchise, because the core characters played by Rapace, Theron and Fassbender are so solid.

Fassbender finds the exact edges of creepy as he becomes the dark side of Wall-E, watching old movies and assimilating the human tics. Theron is sexy, powerful and morally bereft as the greedy corporate force on board, but she also finds human kinks that make her believable.

The bulk of the narrative lifting is done by Rapace, whose ability to play a sympathetic heroine with endless grit makes her the logical heir to Sigourney Weaver's thorny crown.

For the new entrant to the Alien world, Prometheus is a top-shelf science-fiction film that isn't content to simply blow stuff up and show gore. It has real ideas rattling around its make-believe chassis, and that ambition alone is enough to make it worthwhile.

Sure, there will be hardcore fanatics who may feel the movie lacks the same intensity as its progenitors, but for a franchise that starting burning up on re-entry to the multiplex in later years, Prometheus marks a promising new beginning for all things Alien, but a rather foreboding end-note for the human race.

-- Postmedia News

Other voices

Selected excerpts from reviews of Prometheus:

This is a remarkably scary and eye-popping headrush of a movie, an experience that offers a maximum adrenalin boost at the same time as it engages your intelligence. Don't miss it.

-- Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies

The paranoia becomes palpable, and a lot of its impact comes from how dramatic and dazzlingly seamless the special effects are.

-- Christy Lemire, The Associated Press

(Ridley) Scott briskly blends the high-minded stuff with impressive boo-and-goo sequences, ratcheting tension in tight spots and dark caverns. One set piece should become a new milestone in horror, as John Hurt's tummy trouble did in Alien.

-- Steve Persall, Tampa Bay Times

Prometheus is to Alien what 2010 was to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's the difference between a masterpiece and a merely watchable revision of that masterpiece.

-- Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

With this overreaching Prometheus, Scott seems a bit like David carefully arranging his hair in imitation of O'Toole's Lawrence. He can still mimic the appearance of an epic, noble, important movie -- but the appearance is all.

-- Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

My advice to Scott and Lindelof is, try harder -- to bring the characters as well as the creatures alive; to extend the grandeur of that music-of-the-sphere scene to an entire movie; to devise new horror-film money shots; and to scare the crap out of me.

-- Richard Corliss, Time

Prometheus seems to delusionally maintain that its modest thrills are being enlivened by deeper concerns.

-- John Semley, Slant Magazine

-- Compiled by Postmedia News

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 8, 2012 D1