Playing with fire

When choosing the name of a spaceship in science fiction, it usually is an idea to invest it with a grand-sounding name, referencing myths and other tales, such as Icarus (One and Two) in Sunshine.  It is a classic way for scriptwriters to signal ‘look at me! I’m well-read’ to the multiplex masses.  In space, everyone can hear you being pretentious.

Prometheus is the eponymous name of the starship transporting scientists and mercenaries, ahem, security contractors to a far-distant moon in another constellation.  That they do it in a few years suggests they’ve found a way to go faster than light and as the minute rocketship blasts across the expanse of space (and screen), it is reminiscent of Tarkovsky.

In the fad for origin stories, this is the prequel to one of the biggest, explaining the creatures in the Alien franchise and the mysterious ‘axeman’ fossil.  Ridley Scott obviously felt justice could only be done if he were at the helm.  It draws on the tomfoolery of Erich van Däniken and takes it to another level in films covering the subject – aliens didn’t just build the pyramids, they ‘built’ us.  It certainly carries it off with far more panache than, say, Indiana Jones and the clunky title, I mean Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  There is an enigmatic opening scene – is the bulbous humanoid drinking the black gunk meant to become us or become a weapon to destroy us?

Noomi Rapace, an overnight A-lister after The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, is very spunky in the role of the intense ‘fanatic’ Dr Elizabeth Shaw, a scientist with a determination to hold onto a faith of sorts, though more narrowly theistic than the Christianity suggested by her crucifix necklace.  She is the person we are to rally around as her colleagues are variously and progressively slaughtered.  Charlize Theron is the hard-as-nails ice maiden corporate executive who has a background which more than the gray drone initially suggested.  Michael Fassbender, with another origin story, X-Men: First Class, under his belt is an android who, like cybermen in Dr Who or HAL in 2001, claims to be devoid of emotion yet turns it on when he wants, especially with his Oedipal leanings.  The question that hangs throughout pertains to whether he is a bad Ian Holm-robot or a good Lance Henriksen-automaton.  Fassbender is very convincing as David (a tribute to David Lean from Scott as David watches Lawrence of Arabia to perfect a human accent?), though surely, while the others are in deep stasis, you would have more than one of him in case he broke down.

Of the characters with the smaller roles, Guy Pearce is the chief of the shadowy Weyland Corporation funding the trip and looks like Mr (Montgomery) Burns brought to life - not so much flesh and blood as skin and dust – rather than being a Simpsons drawing. The Anthony Hopkins figure in the Emilio Estevez vehicle Freejack is instructive.  Idris Elba plays a big, bluff character, much like Yaphet Kotto in Alien.  Whilst one could not describe either role as tokenist giving their importance to the respective plots, it still has the impression of box-ticking that the presence of a second black actor would annul (the fanboys came at Thor from the wrong angle).  An American of Chinese heritage has a few lines of banter with his co-pilot and that demographic is also covered.  There is a whole variety of alien fodder, with an official manifest of 17.  The primary expendable is Rafe Spall as the dumbest biologist imaginable – who touches an undomesticated animal of which you know nothing, yet is flaring its neck in the manner of a cobra?

Prometheus, like Batman Begins or Casino Royale, may not be a direct origin story, as the ‘axeman’ seen in Alien does not die in his pilot harness here.  So though not apparently seamless, what it does deliver is jaw-dropping scenery, sharp twists and shocks to send the heart-racing.  While keeping one guessing throughout, it stays in your mind a long time after you have left the cinema too.  As I departed, one man remarked to his mate the unusual lament that it should have been half an hour longer to explain more of the facets, ye I think Scott intended to leave aspects opaque so we would continue to chew over them.  What is the prologue about?  What did David really say to the axeman? And so on.  On a less praiseworthy note, how can homo sapiens have the same DNA as beings twice our size and with a different body structure, even if they did ‘engineer’ us?  Indeed, everyone’s DNA is different, full stop.

Whether benign or hostile, we pattern our conception of alien ‘civilisation’ on ourselves.  Whilst conforming to his norm, at the same time Prometheus reverses it.  It does the same with the Greek myth, where it is not an eagle’s beak diving in to the abdomen but something bursting out.  It’s not a genre-defining picture like Alien but it an excellent work all the same.  Just don’t see it if you’re pregnant.  Four out of five.