Hyped as a prequel to the Aliens, Ridley Scot's tryst with sci-fi at the age of 74 is underwhelming despite a spectacular production scale rivaled only by Avatar in imagination and execution.
A crew of a space ship 77 years in the future is woken up from cryogenic sleep by a Droid caretaker. The ship and its crew are out to meet the makers of humans if it were, the people who they believe created mankind, basing on ancient maps found back on earth. What they fins instead, is a species that is angry, gross looking and ready to tear humans apart from the inside out.
Absolutely nothing happens in the first half of Prometheus. The crew lands on the undisclosed planet, searches around in a stunning set piece of a planet, and thats pretty much about it. Scott manages to build up an air of expectation in the audience through the entire first half, as we wait with bated breath fro some thing to happen even as we take in the enormity and scale of the visuals. 3D here is less about things falling into your face and more about creating a sense of depth expanse and size. The problem however is that after this long wait, what comes is worse than a fizzled out firecracker on diwali.
The second half of the film seems rushed into. As the droid turns against its human creators and alien beings start growing in wombs of ladies, the story seems to madly force its way to an end, giving a sense of the makers resorting to cutting corners as they ran out of time and money. The performances are decent, Faasbender as the :Lawrence of Arabia watching droid is particularly impressive, though seasoned actors like Theron are wasted.
With very little octopus like aliens spewing out of human chests and growing into ugly looking monsters, Prometheus is far less about the out of space visitors. The moral grandstanding displayed in the dialogues and essential core idea of meeting with the maker notwithstanding, Prometheus at best works as a decent visual spectacle with once in a while chilling thrills and some awe inspiring technical wizadry. Watch it if you have to.
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