Rated R, this 124-minute long movie was released in U.S. theatres on June 8. Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, the cast includes Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green and Charlize Theron. Shot on a budget of $130 million, the movie posted box office revenues of over $402 million.
The movie begins in the year 2089 as two archeologists find a star map in a Scottish cave that matches maps found at other archeological sites around the world. They interpret the map as an invitation from “Engineers” who are supposedly the alien creators of the human race. With the financial backing of the Weyland Corporation’s super-wealthy CEO, the archeologists and a team of researchers board the spaceship “Prometheus” and follow the old star maps to a moon that’s almost 35 light years from earth.
The crew travels in suspended animation and arrive at the moon, LV-223, in the year 2093. Soon after their arrival, they spot some unusual surface markings that reminded me of Peru’s Nazca lines, and land near what appears to be a large, bunker-type structure. They begin exploring and things begin to go down hill fast for the good guys when they discover a number of dead alien bodies and hundreds of mysterious cylinders containing a dark liquid. (And I’ll stop right there to keep from ruining the movie for those of you who haven’t seen the movie yet.)
In the interest of full disclosure, I feel like I wouldn’t be doing this movie justice if I didn’t at least mention that it’s related to the “Alien” franchise of movies (“Alien,” “Aliens,” “Aliens 3” and “Alien: Resurrection”). Prometheus is somewhat of a prequel to “Alien” in that it takes place in the same universe as those movies and contains some of the imagery from that series of movies.
In a lot of ways, this movie also reminded me a lot of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and I enjoyed its many references to “Lawrence of Arabia,” which is one of my favorite movies. It also reminded me a lot of “Bladerunner,” which should come as no surprise since “Bladerunner” was also directed by a much younger Ridley Scott. In interviews, Scott also mentioned that the plot of “Prometheus” was inspired by the writings of “Eric von Daniken,” who is best known for his ancient aliens book, “Chariot of the Gods.”
Those of you have seen “Prometheus” will be happy to hear that there will probably be a sequel. According to what I’ve read online, the movie won’t come out before 2014. In other words, it’s going to be a while.
In the end, how many of you have seen this movie? What did you think about it? Did you like it or not? What was your favorite part? Where do you think it ranks among the all-time best science fiction movies ever? Why? Let us know in the comments section below.
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