The Evolution of Prometheus

SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE FILM. DO NOT CARRY ON READING, STOP HERE AND GO WATCH THE FILM FIRST. 

The wait is finally over, the long awaited Prometheus has arrived and sees director Ridley Scott returning to the genre he helped define. Here, I’ll discuss my personal views on the film as a long term-fan of the Alien franchise, and how I feel about the ideas behind it.

Unlike many others, I was not expecting another Alien film, why you ask? Simple, because Ridley Scott himself said there is no connection between the two films apart from the last few minutes. What I did not expect however though was the most thought provoking sci-fi film I have seen in a very long time. I say this, as all the films in the franchise have always been more about the way the story is told, leading into the scares that follow. However, Prometheus is the first film in the franchise to make you care and think about the story. People are split in opinion between the story being terrible and good, the ones who think it’s terrible are die-hard fans who just wanted  another cloned Alien film, ones who think it’s good are people looking at it as a film on its own.

Where did we come from? This is the question that is asked throughout the film and one that is never truly answered. This is another aspect that annoys people, but I ask why? If we found out the answers, would it not annoy people more? For example, when the monster was revealed at the end of Cloverfield, it ruined the mystery of what it would look like for a lot of people. No matter what the answer would be to the question, it would never have lived up to people’s expectations. The whole idea of it is for us to ponder over the whole theory of evolution.

Evolution plays a big part of the film, thanks to the mysterious black liquid, which is seen at the beginning of the film. We see a so-called Engineer drink the liquid and then see his cells slowly die, causing more of the liquid to roam around the planet, thus creating life. The creation of life part is a theory, but it does seem to evolve some aspects of the world. We see a shot of worms wiggling around and then as soon as the black stuff spreads around the floor we eventually then see the fan nicknamed “Cobra Huggers” form. This whole film is about life and creation, not Aliens.

The character of David is another example of life and creation, as he is after all a robot designed by Weyland. It’s interesting to note the look of David, as with both his blonde hair and blue eyes, he certainly evokes the Aryan look, the term coined by Hitler for which he used to describe the perfect humans. Even the uniform that David wears is reminiscent of Nazi stylings. Weyland’s daughter Vickers also has blonde hair and blue eyes but in Weyland’s eyes she is not perfect. David was created to be perfect and have no flaws, but how do you create the perfect human being? Androids have no soul or emotions, or at least that’s what we are lead to believe. In reality, David has a mind of his own and is clearly inspired by Hal from 2001:A Space Odyssey, as you never know if he is being sincere or not, you never know what his intentions are. This in my mind creates a new type of horror, making for a change with the usual jump scares. The idea of David is to show a reflection between the relationship between him and his creator and us and our creators, the engineers.

Where does the black stuff come from in the first place? We’ll never know, but my theory is that it comes from the “first gen” Xenomorphs. If you remember the first scene where we see an Engineer drink the stuff it seemed almost acidic just like the Xenomorphs we know today.

Who came before the Engineers? This is another mystery but we do hear from Janek the captain that this isn’t their planet, referring to the engineers. There is a Xenomorph like creature that we see embedded into the wall of the temple, so it could be possible that the “first gen” Xenomorphs lived there originally. The whole philosophy of the film is what makes it so great and one of the best sci-fi films this year.

This is not an Alien film in any way; it’s not trying to be. Why make another one? All it would be is essentially a remake, it’s fantastic to see a new vision in the franchise and is without a doubt a worthy entry in it.

This film could be talked about forever, but this is only a brief summary of what makes this a great film.

What are your thoughts of the film? Let us know in the comments below?