Whether it’s truly a prequel or has it’s roots in Alien, genre fans have been waiting with bated breath for Ridley Scott’s return to world of sci-fi with Prometheus.
As much as he’s well known for science fiction, Scott’s only directed two sci-fi films in his career, Alien and Blade Runner, but that’s certainly enough to put you in the sci-fi pantheon.
So now Prometheus has been seen, and what’s the verdict so far? Well, apparently it’s a mixed bag from what I can tell.
DigitalSpy writes: “In place of Aline’s slow-build horror and queasy jolts, Scott goes for instant gratification shocks here. The results are consistently entertaining and at time genuinely outlandish, but create no lasting impression. Dramatic beats occur in isolation; multiple cast members are slaughtered to no emotional avail, and theological questions are half-heartedly raised without ever being really explored.”
Yet, DigtialSpy did give the movie three stars out of five and added: “That being said, Scott’s far from resting on his laurels – there are fresh audacious moments of body horror, coupled with consistently breathtaking visuals…Prometheus is stunning to look at and initially intriguing, but in the end fatally lacking a soul.”
This is certainly not the first time a sci-fi movie has been accused of being all great looking technology, but with lacking human emotions. As for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, they also both agree with this verdict. Variety wrote, “Elaborately conceived from a visual standpoint, [it] remains earthbound in narrative terms, forever hinting at the existence of a higher intelligence without evincing much of its own.”
And Todd McCarthy writes in The Hollywood Reporter that Prometheus is “A visually stunning return to science fiction by Ridley Scott [that] caters too much to audience expectations when more imaginative boldness would have taken it further.” McCarthy also added, “Although Ridley Scott’s 3D visual feast is no classic, the oozing alien tentacles hit all the right sci-fi horror notes.” So if that’s the case, it should at least deliver for audiences on that level, right?
McCarthy also opined that Prometheus “won’t become a genre benchmark” like Alien and Blade Runner, “but it does supply enough visual spectacle, tense action, and sticky, slithery monster attacks to hit the spot with thrill-seeking audiences worldwide.”
