Prometheus

" Prometheus "

"As Reported by Dollyforme"

This is an amazing movie. Ridley’s most popular movie to date – over 400 million at the box office. It is wonderful to watch after seeing Alien and Bladerunner – Ridley’s first two SF movies. The movie script diverged from being an Alien prequel into an original creation early in the film’s production. Scott and Lindelof worked together five days a week between July and August 2010 to construct the vision Scott wanted to convey and decide what script changes were needed, including scaling back the Alien symbology and tropes. In August and September 2010, Lindelof spent almost five weeks writing his first draft, which he submitted in mid-September 2010. Inspired by Blade Runner, Lindelof thought that it would be possible to combine an Alien story of action and horror with "the Blade Runner thematic", to ask bigger questions that he felt were normally posed in science fiction films. Lindelof said: Blade Runner might not have done well [financially] when it first came out, but people are still talking about it because it was infused with all these big ideas. [Scott] was also talking about very big themes in Prometheus. It was being driven by people who wanted the answers to huge questions. But I thought that we could do that without ever getting too pretentious. Nobody wants to see a movie where people are floating in space talking about the meaning of life ...
Scott's story concept was partially inspired by Chariots of the Gods?, Erich von Däniken's work about the theory of ancient astronauts that hypothesizes that life on Earth was created by aliens. Scott said, "NASA and the Vatican agree that [it is] almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today without there being a little help along the way... That’s what we’re looking at [in the film], at some of Erich von Däniken’s ideas of how did we humans come about.” Spaihts originated the idea that David, the android, is like humans but does not want to be anything like them, eschewing a common theme in "robotic storytelling" such as Blade Runner. He also developed the theme that while the human crew are searching for their creators, David is already among its creators.
The babe of the movie is Charlize Theron who plays mission director Meredith Vickers in a most replicant way. Is she a machine?
The story really picks up when the Prometheus (the ship the movie takes place on) lands near an alien structure (resembling a large temple-like pyramid) and a team including Shaw, Holloway, and David explores it, while Vickers and Captain Janek (Idris Elba) remain aboard the ship and monitor their progress.

They find several cylinder-like artifacts, a monolithic statue of a humanoid head, and the decapitated corpse of a giant alien, thought to be one of the Engineers. Other bodies are later found, and the species is presumed to be extinct. David secretly returns a cylinder to the ship, while the remaining vessels in the chamber begin leaking a dark fluid. A rapidly approaching storm forces the crew to return to Prometheus, leaving crew members Milburn (Rafe Spall) and Fifield (Sean Harris) stranded in the pyramid structure after becoming lost trying to find the way out. Shaw insists they take the Engineer's head back to the ship with them and they barely make it back alive.
In the ship, Shaw and medic Ford (Kate Dickie) analyze the Engineer's head, and discover that its DNA is identical to that of the human race. Meanwhile, David investigates the cylinder and discovers a small ampoule containing a small amount of black fluid. He intentionally infects Holloway with the substance, hiding it in a drop of liquid on his finger and briefly tapping it into a glass of champagne Holloway drinks from to celebrate their discovery. Later, Shaw and the infected Holloway have sex. Holloway later looks in a mirror and sees his eyes are changing.
The next morning after the storm subsides, the Prometheus crew returns to the structure and David discovers a room containing a living Engineer in stasis and a holographic star map highlighting Earth. Holloway's infection rapidly ravages his body, and he is rushed back to the ship. As he visibly deteriorates, Vickers refuses to let him aboard, and immolates him with a flame thrower at his own request.
A medical scan reveals that Shaw, despite being sterile, is pregnant. David subdues her to return her to Earth in stasis, but she escapes and uses an automated surgery pod in Vicker's quarters to extract a cephalopod-like creature from her abdomen. Weyland is found to have been in stasis aboard the ship; he explains to Shaw that he intends to ask the Engineers to help him avoid his impending death.
A mutated Fifield attacks the hangar bay and kills several crew members before being killed himself. Janek theorizes that the planet they are on was used by the Engineers as a military base until they lost control of their biological weapons, namely the cylinders and the black fluid they contain. The remaining crew return to the structure and awaken the Engineer, who is occupying what is discovered to be a space ship (the same design as the derelict alien space ship seen in 'Alien' and 'Aliens'). David speaks to the Engineer, who responds by decapitating him and killing Weyland and Ford. Shaw escapes the alien ship as it is activated by the Engineer. The still-active David reveals it is going to release the ampoules on Earth. Vickers orders Janek to return to Earth, but Shaw convinces him to stop the Engineer's ship. Janek and his two surviving crewmen take off and crash the Prometheus into it while Vickers flees in an escape pod. The disabled Engineer ship crashes onto the planet, falling onto Vickers, crushing her. The ship continues to tumble and nearly crushes Shaw, but she escapes.
Shaw goes to the escape pod to retrieve supplies and finds her alien offspring has grown to gigantic size. The Engineer survives the crash, enters the escape pod and attacks Shaw, who releases the tentacled creature. It subdues the Engineer by thrusting a tentacle down its throat. Shaw recovers David's remains from the alien ship, and together they activate another Engineer ship. Shaw and the remains of android David then take off to travel to the Engineers' homeworld in an attempt to understand why they created humanity and why they attempted to destroy it.
In the final shot, in the Prometheus escape pod, an alien creature (very similar but not the same as seen in later movies) bursts out of the dying Engineer's chest.
Something here for both Alien and Bladerunner fans – I hear Ridley Scott is going to make another SF movie – and why not? His first three are pure movie magic and just the ticket for those who love R rated SF movies like me.