‘Prometheus’ (2012) is a thinking fan’s sci-fi film

It’s really a shame that the novelization has died out. “Prometheus,” which recently hit home video, is begging for a talented sci-fi author to delve deeper into its themes via the written word. In fact, “Prometheus” is by far the most idea-oriented chapter among the 10 films in the “Aliens/Predator” saga.

The two other entries that come closest are “Alien Resurrection” (1997) with its exploration of the creation of life (in that case, via cloning and the purposeful use of humans as incubators for xenomorphs), and “Alien vs. Predator” (2004), with its idea that an alien race (in that case, the Predators) has seeded Earth (in that case, with Aliens).

The origins of … everything

Those films had solid novelizations, especially A.C. Crispin’s take on “Resurrection.” But “Prometheus” especially calls to mind a couple of books-turned-films — Arthur C. Clarke’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) and Carl Sagan’s “Contact” (1997 movie, 1985 novel) — in that it explores the origins of human life and posits an extraterrestrial connection.

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“Prometheus” smoothly blends a religious quality with the scientific process of evolution. The Engineer in the opening scene on pristine, primitive Earth sacrifices himself so that humans may live. After drinking a black goo, he falls to pieces in a waterfall, seeding the Earth with his DNA, which is also human DNA. (We’re told the DNA is identical; however, the Engineers are clearly larger than us. It’s one of literally hundreds of questions that crop up in “Prometheus,” for better or worse.)

The evolutionary process in “Prometheus” also allows for a couple of gross-out scenes that the “Alien” franchise is known for. The first hour is mostly cerebral and science-fictiony. Then we get the scene of what seems to be this film’s equivalent of a facehugger attacking an unlucky scientist by jumping straight down his throat.

Twenty minutes later, the equivalent of a chestburster is seen when our heroine Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) uses an auto-surgery pod to extract a creature from her uterus. (Then she’s up and about in no time, a medical impossibility that many have criticized this film for. But I’m going to simply play the “It’s a movie” card on this one, because the sci-fi questions are plentiful enough.)

Shaw had become impregnated because she had sex with her boyfriend, who had been infected by a bit of black goo in his drink courtesy of android David (Michael Fassbender). Experimenting with the organic material found on the Engineers’ ship independently from Shaw, David is either following programming from expedition funder Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce in old-age makeup) or following his own curiosity.

In space, no one can hear you experiment

I’m going to guess the latter, as Peter seems primarily concerned with learning the secret to eternal life straight from an Engineer’s mouth, not through mad-scientist-style experimentation; he’s selfish, not evil. (By the way, why go to the trouble of using makeup rather than just casting an older actor? I suspect a sequel might have a use for Pearce sans makeup.)

Whereas “Alien” (1979) — which, like this film, was directed by Ridley Scott — follows a straight-line evolutionary track of egg-to-facehugger-to-chestburster-to-xenomorph (rinse and repeat, if the xenomorph is a queen that lays eggs), “Prometheus” explores multiple evolutionary tracks.

While Shaw is impregnated, another character who is sprayed with goo goes crazy and has super strength. Meanwhile, the squid-like creature that comes from Shaw’s belly impregnates the lone surviving Engineer with what looks like a primitive version of an Alien queen in the now-famous closing image.

Thematically, all of these disgusting events point to the “Why, God, why?” question running through Shaw’s head. Loosely defined as a Christian in the movie, Shaw comes to LV-223 to learn the origin of mankind. We get the sense that whatever she learns will make her happy, sort of like Jodie Foster’s discovery at the end of “Contact.” In reality, she sees proto-Alien horrors, presumably also created by the Engineers, as their ship is filled with vases that secrete the goo that gets the evolutionary process going.

Questions going forward

Here are the questions I’m most interested in seeing explored in “Prometheus 2”: Do the Engineers view humans as a success or a failure? And do they view Aliens as a success or a failure? And why? And what are they going to do about it?

Side note: Although some reviews have suggested that “Prometheus” is a complete origin story for the xenomorphs, that fails to acknowledge that they have appeared much earlier on the timeline, as shown in the “Aliens vs. Predator” films. (Granted, I’ve also heard a theory that those films “don’t count” anymore. And, indeed, “Prometheus” has the Weyland Corporation come into existence after the events of “AVP,” which features Charles Bishop Weyland — unknown relation to Peter — as a main character.)

Further muddying the waters, the cavern with the giant human-or-Engineer head carved into the wall also features H.R. Giger-esque carvings. They don’t look exactly like xenomorphs, but they are in that vein. This suggests that the Engineers’ experience with their xenomorph creations is just as ancient as their experience with human creations.

Not linked with ‘Alien’ just yet

“Prometheus” is packed with questions like these that might mean “plot hole” or “answers coming in the sequel” or something in between. And it’s frustrating largely because we as viewers are so anxious to link this film up with “Alien.”

On the other hand, we waited 33 years to find out anything about the Space Jockey, and we finally get that here with the introduction of the Engineers (anything “official,” that is; the spin-off comics and novels had previously taken a crack at the Space Jockey’s origin). It seems a safe bet that the wait until “Prometheus 2” won’t be nearly as long.

In the meantime, I’ll say this: Scott and writers John Spaihts and Damon Lindelof, the latter of whom was the lead writer on “Lost,” have given us the most thematically rich, provocative, talking-point-laden entry in the “Aliens/Predator” series so far.

What are your thoughts on “Prometheus” now that you’ve had a chance to watch it a couple times? What questions do you most want answered in the sequel(s)?

Click here for John’s reviews of all the “Aliens” and “Predator” films.