SCI-FI ACTION; 2hr 4min
STARRING: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Logan Marshall-Green
The girl with the life-changing mission: Rapace
In 2093, after two-years-and-change charging through deep space, the scientific exploratory spaceship Prometheus is approaching a planet believed capable of sustaining life. The ship’s diverse crew includes scientists Elizabeth Shaw (the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ’s fierce, terrific Rapace), her significant other, Dr Charlie Holloway (Marshall-Green), android David (Fassbender, fabulous as an outwardly courteous, can-do enigma) and frosty supervisor Meredith Vickers (Theron).
The commendably sincere doctors discovered the 35,000-year-old Scottish cave art that seemingly depicts the coming to Earth of alien beings and inspired the trillion-dollar trek, the noble purpose of which is to solve the eternal riddle of human creation. The motives of the others are mixed and so is their dramatic reception: when they touch down on a craggy, ash-grey but by no-means-barren planet, what awaits the exploratory team is horrific, terrifying and profound.
Director Ridley Scott, who should know, has said that while Prometheus has “strands of Alien ’s DNA,” it isn’t a prequel to his 1979 landmark film. Which matters not one iota. There is a distinctive creep-out quotient but in its beauty and ferocity, this is all its own, visually astonishing work.