Alien: Romulus is about to release and I figured I’d try and slip in a few Alien-related films before going to check out Fede Álvarez’s entry. I had already watched Ridley Scott’s original Alien and James Cameron’s Aliens somewhat recently, so that left the option of going to Aliens 3 or venturing back to Prometheus, a film I haven’t seen since its theatrical release. And I was surprised at how solid it was, but the enjoyment of the film was best viewed as a standalone experience, rather than an “Alien” movie.

Make no mistake though, Prometheus is very much tied to the canon of the first Alien film; it serves as a prequel to the original film and explores the origins of the Xenomorph as well as the Engineers, otherwise known as the “Space Jockey” from the original film. But rather than retreading old ground, having a Xenomorph hunting down a crew one by one in the dark, Prometheus is a much more philosophical movie that’s more interested in its in-universe exploration of the origin of species, specifically humans, while setting the stage for the titular Aliens to come.

The film opens with one such Engineer on a planet, suddenly dying and dissolving into the water. Flash forward to the year 2089 and archeologists Elizabeth Shaw and Charlie Holloway have found cave paintings depicting a star chart, the same chart found in other ancient civilization artwork. Weyland Corporation elects to fund a scientific expedition on the research vessel Prometheus to go to the star system in question and answer the questions, “Are we alone in the universe”, and “Where did we come from”. Of course, Weyland being Weyland, there’s some ulterior motives going on here that the scientists aren’t privy to.

I forgot how stacked the cast of Prometheus was. It features the likes of Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Logan Marshall-Green, and Idris Elba in bigger roles, with Sean Harris, Rafe Spall, Kate Dickie, Benedict Wong, Patrick Wilson, and Guy Pearce in supporting roles. Fassbender is the standout here, playing the robot David, who fits quite nicely into the creation theme of the movie. He also has a superiority complex and sees himself as being more important than his human creators and masters. The cinematography and set design are also great, pulling from that H.R. Giger style, and most of the exterior shots were filmed on-location in Iceland. Despite being a familiar location on Earth, Iceland does have an alien quality about it, making the planet feel remote and different. The sets are also really impressive, so much so that when there is CGI imagery at work, it unfortunately stands out quite a bit.

Scott also leans into the horror quite a bit, such as the snake encounter and the infamous C-section scene. The music by Marc Streitenfeld in these scenes in particular really drives home that tension and fear and it’s great to see that Ridley Scott, a director known for his spectacle and not horror, is still able to tap into these elements so many years after the original Alien film and a career rife with action set pieces.

I mentioned that Prometheus is a much more philosophical film than Alien and that’s due to the themes that Scott elected to insert into the film. There’s an ever-present shadow of the origin of humanity hanging over the film, which in turn challenges what the characters know about religion and faith. If the crew do find the Engineers on a far-off planet, that will be the biggest scientific discovery in humanity’s history. You can really chew into that further and ponder the ramifications of A.I., personified here by Fassebender’s David, and ask if we’ve evolved from the Engineers, so to then would our A.I. creations in a way.

Of course, then there’s the title of the film itself, Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who gave humans fire, which was expressly forbidden by the gods as they feared humans becoming too powerful with certain tools (read, technology), which would in turn tip the power scales out of their favour. As punishment for empowering humans, Prometheus was bound to a rock and an eagle would eat his intestines, causing him great agony. At the end of the day, the wounds would heal and the process would start again the following day. In the film, the crew of the Prometheus go searching for “forbidden knowledge” and higher powers than themselves end up punishing them for their transgressions. Specifically, the deeply religious Shaw wants to confirm that there is a God or a higher power, and in her hubris, gets the whole crew of the Prometheus killed in the pursuit of that answer. Said crew, despite being scientists and navigators, are some of the dumbest around, taking their helmets off an alien planet or general disinterest at the massive revelations.

Is all this a little heavy-handed and meandering at times? Yes, it certainly is, but it’s also a relief that Scott elected not to just do Alien all over again. But I can understand why one may feel a bit let down when going into a Ridley Scott Alien movie, that’s not that concerned about actually being an Alien movie. In fact, I think the movie would actually have benefitted by being a standalone sci-fi feature about the origin of species, as the Xenomorph angle does feel tacked on and unnecessary to the plot of this movie. In fact, the Xenomorph mythology actually creates more plot holes than it does add to the lore. There’s also more than a cryo chamber’s worth of plot holes and inconsistencies from a script by Damon Lindelof, especially toward the end of the movie. It’s hard to buy into the fact that Shaw is able to get into a high-stress action scenario in the finale, when she had a C-section only hours before, for example, and we have to suspend our disbelief quite a bit.

Despite its flaws, Prometheus was an interesting rewatch, but one I think suffers by having the baggage of the Alien franchise attached to it. But I like that Scott thought outside of the box on this one and did something unexpected and different, despite its flaws. It’s not a masterpiece like the original Alien is, but Prometheus is still an interesting watch. Much like Prometheus, I’ve only seen its sequel, Alien: Covenant, once as well and I’m going to quickly fit that in before watching Romulus next week so stay tuned for that.