Prometheus Movie Review (Superb)

Review by Film.com

An astute craftsman even on his worst days (read: “A Good Year”), 74-year-old Ridley Scott has already earned his place in movie history by helming the equally impressive and influential “Alien” and “Blade Runner.” He hasn’t returned to the realm of sci-fi in the three decades since, but between plans for a sequel to the latter and this weekend’s “Prometheus,” a distant prequel to the former, Scott is returning to the genre well with no shortage of panache or heady concepts at hand. Whether those concepts fundamentally compensate for the occasionally rough-hewn execution that follows remains up for debate.

Through glimpses of violence on a cellular level, the wordless prologue aptly establishes the ominous/opaque tone and primary creative/destructive themes. We then jump forward from what would appear to be the beginning of Life as We Know It on Earth to the year 2089 A.D., when archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover cave paintings in Scotland that corroborate their theory that someone out there — “Engineers” — has made the same impression on several civilizations across thousands of years and wants to be found. For him, it’s the pursuit of science; for her, it’s a quest for God.

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Review by The Detroit News

Director Ridley Scott has helmed two of the best science fiction films ever made — “Alien” and “Blade Runner.”
Well, make it three. “Prometheus” is only the third time the prolific and eclectic Scott (“Gladiator,” “Thelma & Louise,” “Black Hawk Down”) has done a sci-fi movie, and again he has done it to near-perfection. Whether he has exceeded the grasp of a mass audience remains to be seen, but there’s something about futurescapes that lets Scott flex all his visual and narrative muscle. Anything goes (including a self-administered c-section). “Prometheus” is very much a prequel to “Alien,” the film that launched Scott’s career in 1979, despite rumors that it isn’t. If it looks like an alien, quacks like an alien and latches onto faces like an alien, it’s an alien. The film takes place in 2093. An archaeologist named Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace, the original “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) and her scientist boyfriend Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) have discovered a number of drawings from diverse ancient cultures on Earth that depict the same thing: worship of a series of planets up above.

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Review by New York Post

“2001: A Space Odyssey” was about an astronaut named Dave traveling to the far reaches of the universe to find the secret to man’s origins on Earth. “Prometheus” is totally different: This time the spaceman is named “David.”
But from the opening shot of “Prometheus,” which is a direct quotation of the Stanley Kubrick magnum opus, it’s clear that Ridley Scott’s intense and engulfing adventure-horror-sci-fi flick is honoring its predecessors (including “Avatar” and Scott’s “Blade Runner” and “Alien,” to which this film is an unofficial prequel). Gorgeous set pieces thrill the senses, but there is philosophical inquiry as well. “Alien” was, after all, just “Jaws” in space, but “Prometheus” ponders where evil comes from and how it conquers its makers.
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