Prometheus movie review

Prometheus movie review

I know, I know, talking about Prometheus, prequel to the Alien series is SO old-news by now. Still, I guess I'm one of those rare breeds who never boarded the hyper-train when the movie first came out and I had only watched it as recent as last week. And after watching it, I just need to get a few things off my chest:

(1) Does anyone realize Prometheus is a retelling/rip-off of H P. Lovecraft's novel At the Mountains of Madness!?

Prometheus: Scientists go to a remote planet to explore a ruins (in the form of an underground tomb/military base) built by extraterrestrial beings, the crew find the remains of said extraterrestrial creatures. At one point, the mummified(?) remains come to life by accident, it evolves into some monster and start hunting the crew members one by one. During the progress, the scientists discovered (by studying the 3D-images and maps found in the ruins), the long forgotten extraterrestrial race (the Engineers) is in fact the creators of human race, but the extraterrestrial race was destroyed by a monster race (the Aliens/Xenomorph) they created as a tool/weapon during a rebellion (or a series of rebellions).

At the Mountains of Madness: Scientists go to a remote place (Antarctica) to explore a ruins (in the form of a stone city) built by extraterrestrial beings, the crew find the remains of said extraterrestrial creatures (The Elder Things). At one point, the mummified/frozen(?) remains come to life by accident, it starts hunting the crew members one by one. During the progress, the scientists discovered (by studying the carving found in the stone city), the long forgotten extraterrestrial race (the Older Things) is in fact the creators of human race *and* all living creatures, but the extraterrestrial race was later destroyed by a monster race (the shoggoths) they created as a tool/weapon/slaves during a rebellion (or a series of rebellions).

Okay, I'm not saying Prometheus is a rip-off, but the similarities are quite shocking to me. And I can totally see how the creative team beyond Prometheus getting inspiration from At the Mountains of Madness and/or other Sci-Fi horror classic.

Enough about At the Mountains of Madness, now back to Prometheus:

(2) Oh, this movie is an embarrassment for all the scientists out there:

Scientists who go on a mission to find extraterrestrial life in the outer space act TOO STUPID TO LIVE from start to end.

Let's take off the helmet! Let's get lost in the aliens' ruins despite of the cool and useful 3D-map and spend the night in it! Let's not carry any weapon to protect yourself! Let's play with the alien snake even when you don't have the slightest idea whether the snake eats flesh or not!

(3) No one had thought of using an exploration robot to explore the ruins before they set foot into the ruin themselves:

It is supposed to be a mega-millions space mission right? But how come they didn't prepare a fancy exploration robot and use it to make sure the ruins is safe before sending *humans* to set foot into the ruins?

******plot spoilers warning********

(4) The dying rich man just has to go meet the Creator God/The surviving Engineer *himself* instead of sending out a henchman to test the water first?

I mean, the dying rich man has no clue that the Engineer is friendly, right? Why would he just go and risk himself like this?

*******end of spoiler*******

(5) the sexual undertone:

One thing: the Swiss surrealist and artist H. R. Giger, the father of The Alien design, is a mother freaking genius. Just take a look at his artwork!!!!

Yet, on the other hand, I guess there is (or should I say, always has been ) some really fucked up rape fantasy and/or monster sex fantasy going on in the Alien series, Prometheus is no exclusion. Just look at the design of the Xenomorph, etc!

Last but not least, here is a very good summary of the movie:

Honest Trailers - Prometheus
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBaKqO…