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An alien humanoid visits the Earth
And drinks a dark liquid that helps to give birth
To the whole human race, by inducing decay
Of the alien’s body, to spread DNA.
 
In the future, some scientists find common bonds
In ancient cave paintings; a star corresponds,
So Elizabeth Shaw and Holloway too
Think their creators are out there. (Do you?)
So they tell Peter Weyland, a dying patrician,
Who sends them and others on this expedition.
 
They fly for two years to the farthest of places
Till David, an android, awakes them from stasis.
Their ship, the Prometheus, lands on a moon,
And Holloway’s eager to find something soon.
Thinking they’ve found their progenitors’ home,
They enter a hollow, gargantuan dome.
They find some black urns, but not what they seek,
So David takes one, and the rest start to leak.
They do bag a guillotined alien head,
But a storm sends them back to their vessel instead.
 
Two redshirts are left and don’t live through the night,
For that liquid spawns something that gives us a fright.
Meanwhile, poor Holloway’s given a drink
That David has spiked with that dangerous ink.
He’s sick by next morning, and things go awry
When Holloway says that he’d much rather die.
But Shaw was impregnated by him last night
And has a machine cut her open (that’s right!)
And take out an odious, squid-like offspring.
She then locks the door to trap the gross thing.
 
Shaw finds out that Weyland is onboard, and why?
He hopes that his makers can help him not die.
They visit an alien Dave found asleep.
Dave tries to communicate, but talk is cheap.
The alien kills all but Shaw and prepares
To take off for Earth. Though our DNA’s theirs,
These Engineers somehow decided to spread
This liquid to Earth to kill us instead.
The alien tries to fulfill now that mission,
But Prometheus’ captain won’t give him permission.
The two ships collide, leaving Shaw the last here,
For she sics her own offspring on that Engineer.
With poor David’s head, she takes some other ship
To find further answers on some other trip.
__________________
 

I was originally not going to have Prometheus on my list because of the language, some very disturbing scenes, and quite a few unanswered questions. Yet Prometheus is the kind of film that keeps one thinking, and, after much consideration, I think I at least have some good theories to satisfy that last point.

I think the black liquid is a powerful mutagen, which is much more severe when ingested. That seems to answer questions like “Where did that snake thing come from?” (from the worms that were exposed to the fluid), “What happened to Holloway and Fifield?” (Holloway was experiencing a slower version of what happened to the alien at the beginning, and Fifield, who did not ingest it, was simply going berserk), and “What happened to the Engineers?” (I tend to think there was a leak, and they killed themselves in the same way Holloway preferred to die. The fact that the head, when reactivated, started breaking down seems to back up this theory.) The fact that the Engineer did not end up in the chair where one was found in Alien tells me that the crew of the Nostromo must have landed on a different planet, perhaps to be visited and set up appropriately in Prometheus 2. Someone else might have very well figured all this out already, but my coming to my own conclusions allowed me to better appreciate the film, though there are still a few unanswered questions about David’s motivations and such. The film left my VC a bit confused at first, but, upon a second viewing, she better understood and liked the film.

The outstanding special effects are light-years ahead of the original Alien, and, though Prometheus takes some cues from its predecessor/sequel, such as ending with a countdown and killing off nearly everyone, it also is able to stand alone, as director Ridley Scott wanted all along.

As a Christian, I don’t believe for a second that aliens created mankind, but this assertion in the film is tempered by Shaw’s unconvincing but sincere faith and her pointing out that someone must have made the Engineers. I find the gruesome, abortion-like surgery scene to be messed up on way too many levels, and Peter Weyland’s death scene seemed very abrupt considering everything before it, but the rest of the film mostly makes up for its faults.

Best line: The aforementioned quote questioning, “Okay, who made the Engineers then?”

 
Artistry: 7
Characters/Actors: 6
Entertainment: 5
Visual Effects: 10
Originality: 6
Watchability: 5
Other (violence, especially surgery scene): -7
Other (confusing elements): -4
 
TOTAL: 28 out of 60
 

Tomorrow: #347: Despicable Me

© 2014 S. G. Liput