Prometheus Review

I have been experiencing all sorts of new and fascinating cinema lately and it has been wonderful, but today while I was sitting at work daydreaming about being anywhere but there, I started feeling guilty about how much I have ignored my beloved Blu-ray collection lately. Since 2008 I have pieced together this amazing collection of films and television series, a total of over 330 things to watch placed into alphabetical order, and yet in the past month I believe I have only giving two or three of those discs a spin. A tear practically fell from my eye when I pictured my beautiful blu babies gathering dust, a profound moment that made me realize that this pattern of cinematic abuse must end.

After apologizing profusely to my wall of visually spectacular film options, I scanned it quickly to decide where I would begin on this journey of revisits and reanalysis, and I landed on Prometheus. Now, I know some of you are thinking, what the fuck is wrong with you? You own 300 damn films and the one you excitedly grab off the shelf is Prometheus? If you are thinking that, you are likely the other end of the spectrum, those that were filled with anger and disappointment after seeing the sorta prequel to Alien that made this film so polarizing. While I will admit to a very slight feeling of being let down initially when I exited the theater during opening weekend, that was only because I entered expecting a new masterpiece of science fiction cinema and that this is not. Once I could clear my mind and process how the much anticipated new journey actually did play out, I fell in love with it and that admiration actually grows with each revisit, tonight included.

See, if cinema is a drug, then I get friggin' high off of both the science fiction genre and a dark, brooding and ominous atmosphere, so in that sense Prometheus hit my god damn G-spot. Based solely off of technical aspects alone, it was impossible for me to truly hate this film, but what elevates it to something I cherish are the sense of wonder achieved from visiting a new, fictional world, the unsettling curiosity of what lurks in the darkness, and an inspired performance by the always stunning Michael Fassbender. I am not foolish to believe this is a perfect film, it is far from it, and a few specific portions of the story don't quite sit right with me and the script is occasionally lackluster. In the end none of that matters though, and I can't quite explain why. Everything I appreciate about Prometheus lifts the entire film so far above the flaws that I barely even notice them anymore, allowing me to get lost in Ridley's world and abandon the ability to nitpick.

You could literally list every single thing you hate about the film, and that is fine. You have the right to do that and feel the way you want, and trust me when I say I have heard every possible complaint before, but just accept that nothing you can say will tarnish this work even remotely for me. Prometheus is an intoxicating slice of Sci-fi, one that is somehow immune to my eye for careful analysis and judgement, and I will continue to grab it off the wall and turn the lights down low for this beauty time and time again.



4.5/5